NH DePass: SQUIGGLE

Sibyl Gallery is pleased to present Squiggle, an exhibition of drawings and sculpture by NH DePass (b. 1990, New Orleans). 

The artist Ken Price said “sculptors learn to draw so they can see what they’ve been visualizing.” In contrast, DePass draws a world that his sculptures might inhabit. His drawings emerge directly from his sculptures, often blurring the line between his two and three dimensional works. 

DePass approaches drawing as a sieve through which he filters visual culture. The drawings begin with an abstracted shape which DePass approaches much like a Rorschach inkblot or a Surrealist game of Exquisite Corpse. He allows his subconscious mind to create connections and build out a universe within the drawing. The aesthetics and touchstones of wholesome visual Americana intermix with allusions to death and vice. 

Through drawing, DePass learns to understand himself. He uses drawing as a way to filter through and regurgitate the imagery amassed inside him by virtue of growing up in Western society. The drawings ultimately become investigations of Western culture as a whole. DePass interacts with the viewer through a collective emotional and psychological response to the visual signifiers that are universally consumed and understood. Recurring characters feel as familiar as little plastic army men and Mickey Mouse and inspire a sense of collective nostalgia. 

DePass' drawing and sculptural practice are linked by his interest in the tension between the past and the present. This juxtaposing ideology is reflected in his work from the point of conception all the way through its methods of production. His exacting sense of 20th century craftsmanship paired with a contemporary playfulness transpose his work into objects that exist outside of time. The drawings and sculptures share an anachronistic visual language that feels at once familiar and unfamiliar. The drawings, like the Self Portrait desk-sculpture, channel that uncanny sensation. 

Like something out of a child’s bedroom, Self Portrait feels as though the drawings could have emerged directly from it. Upon a closer inspection it’s appearance shifts to something more sinister, a snake slithers in an atomic wasteland at the foot of the object. This shift in tone functions as a recurring motif in DePass’ work. In the drawing Clown Down, the figure who initially could be mistaken for Ronald McDonald lies on the ground with a smoking gun. The drawings' colorful cartoon style obscures an underlying darkness, as does the iconography of Americana that DePass so heavily references. 

Squiggle, by definition, describes DePass’ drawing practice. He loops and curves lines on a page, unearthing figures, scenes and characters. Across the work this is accomplished to varying degrees of refinement and precision. Some remain abstracted and raw while others are subjected to a meticulous precision of color, pattern and detail. Ultimately, the collection of works on paper created and amassed compulsively for nearly a decade reveal DePass’ ongoing relationship to the world around him. 

ABOUT NH DEPASS

NH DePass (b.1990) is an artist from New Orleans, Louisiana. He holds an MFA in Sculpture from The Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY and a BA from The Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA. DePass uses classical techniques like hand sewing and carpentry while incorporating digital graphics and printing to create works that disturb historical and cultural timelines. In 2021, his work was featured in the solo exhibition Form Destroyer at Thierry Goldberg Gallery in New York City. He has exhibited in group exhibitions at The Pit, Los Angeles; Public Gallery, London; GYNP Gallery, Berlin; and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans. In 2021, he was awarded first place in the Louisiana Contemporary exhibition at the Ogden Museum of Southern art.