Dolos
September 12th – October 3rd, 2009
Dutes Miller and Stan Shellabarger are the two artists that together form: Miller & Shellabarger. Miller & Shellabarger will be the 10th of the artists to participate in Diet’s invitational series of exhibitions. Their work, which is often rooted in accessible performances, links them together as partners, procreators, specimens, and artists. Miller & Shellabarger take a comical, yet heartfelt everyday approach to the notion of collaboration. For their exhibition at Gallery Diet, Dutes and Stan will be performing Untitled (Pink Tube), a never ending, at least not to date, performance in which the duo sit across from each other patiently knitting a pink tube, their casual demeanor encouraging audience members to join them in conversation; inviting questions that range from the socio political to the mundane. The ritual of their performance lies in the ritual of the everyday, the casual tasks that two people perform when linked together. The work of Miller & Shellabarger allows us to see the intricacies of human relationships, they are at once bound together and pulled apart; professional, personal, creative and practical lives are woven into non discernable shapes, morphing between one body and two, two heads and one, multiple objects into conversations. This performance will be set amongst a comprehensive representation of works by the duo that highlight them as a “conjoined” force; prints, sculptural objects, photography, and video that range in date from 2003 to the present.
Miller & Shellabarger have exhibited work in Basel, Switzerland, at Volta, the Cleveland Performance Art Festival, the Chicago Cultural Center, the NADA art fair, and at Western Exhibitions in Chicago where they are represented. Their work has been written about on Artinfo.com, The Art Newspaper, The New York Times, Flash Art, Artforum.com, Art & Auction, and various other publications. Their work is also included in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada in Ontario.
