ABOUT CRAIG DRENNEN

Craig Drennen is an artist based in Atlanta, GA. He is represented by Samsøn gallery in Boston and Saltworks in Atlanta. His most recent solo exhibitions were at Samsøn gallery in Boston, Florida Mining gallery in Jacksonville, FL, and Ellen de Bruijne Projects in Amsterdam. Drennen has been included in group exhibitions at P.P.O.W. in New York City and Cottage House Gallery in Los Angeles, as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Georgia, the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, and the High Museum in Atlanta. He has shown in the VoltaBasel art fair in Basel, Switzerland, the MACO art fair in Mexico City, the NEXT art fair in Chicago, and the Aqua art fair in Miami. His work has been reviewed in Artforum, Art in America, and The New York Times. He teaches at Georgia State University, served as dean of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and is on the board of Art Papers magazine. Since 2008 he has organized his studio practice around Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens.

Drennen, whose influences range from Marcel Duchamp to Ed Ruscha, has been called a wry conceptualist. In his work he combines abstraction with text and figural representation, and frequently references failed cultural productions from history. Between 2002 and 2007, he produced performances, videos, paintings, and drawings based on the unsuccessful 1984 movie Supergirl. Since then, he has been creating works based on the characters from Timon of Athens, the only play by Shakespeare not produced during his lifetime. When asked about recurring themes in his work, Drennen says that he is “interested in making work that inhabits abandoned cultural airspace,” adding that this “should not be confused with an affection for failure.”

-from Artsy.com

HELEN SLATER AS SUPERGIRL

Helen Slater as Supergirl was Atlanta-based artist Craig Drennen's first New York solo show. The show ran from February to March 2005 at Brooklyn Fire Proof's previous location on Richardson St. in Williamsburg (the gallery progenitor of the larger complex of businesses in Bushwick/East Williamsburg that now comprise BFP). Drennen focused his studio practice on Supergirl, the failed 1984 spinoff of the successful Superman franchise, for over five years. 

Copied below is the press release for the show, and a gallery of images of the work.

Helen Slater as Supergirl
Craig Drennen: Paintings, Drawings, and Multiples
101 Richardson Street, between Leonard St. and Meeker Ave.,
Williamburg
February 11 - March 12, 2005
Reception: Friday, February 11, 8 - 11 PM

Helen Slater as Supergirl is Craig Drennen’s first solo exhibition in New York City. The exhibition consists of paintings, drawings, and sculptural multiples all based on the 1984 movie Supergirl. Drennen organizes his entire artistic practice around Supergirl, which starred Helen Slater in the title role. It allows Drennen the opportunity to comment on the ascendancy of film from the vantage point of traditional media, and to refer to a subject that “is familiar to everyone, but not truly known by anyone.”

10 PM Live Music Opening Night Featuring 18 the Brooklyn-based band with a potent mix of music for your kundalini. 18 is Bob, Derrick, Tucker and Boss.

 

THE SUPERGIRL PROJECT

NEW MISTRESS VS. OLD ATHENIANS

 

Ten years after his first New York solo show with BFP, Craig Drennen returned with a new show from a new body of work. After concluding more than five years of studio practice dedicated to his Supergirl project, Drennen switched to a very different cultural goldmine--Shakespeare. More specifically, Shakespeare's failed and unfinished play, Timon of Athens. Rarely performed and rarely considered critically (or always critically, never considered by critics), Drennen felt that he would have the freedom to claim this uncharted territory for his own purposes.