Mairikke Dau, Pitcher Plant, 2023, oil on linen, 48 x 72 inches

Mairikke Dau
Biodome

January 11 through February 17, 2024
Opens Thursday, January 11, 6–8pm

Harper’s Los Angeles
8115 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90046
Tuesday–Saturday, 10am–6pm

Harper’s is pleased to announce Biodome, New York-based artist Mairikke Dau’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. The presentation features new oil paintings by Dau and opens on Thursday, January 11, 6–8pm, with a reception attended by the artist.

In the field of biology, biodomes are habitats wherein equilibrium is achieved among disparate or opposing communities of life. In Biodome, Mairikke Dau takes a close look at these organic systems of cooperation through meticulous color blocking on linen canvases. Through the intentional layering of color and form, the artist proposes a rigorous study of earth’s indelible instances of harmony and reciprocity, for these innate patterns unite the world’s competing ecosystems. Dau’s juxtapositions of bold hues, such as fiery orange and nocturnal indigo, carve evocative shapes to form whimsical landscapes that, like segments of a puzzle, piece together so that idiosyncratic forms become foliage, landforms, and fauna within surreal scenes of nature. While the resultant works boast intricate compositions, Dau ultimately develops a language of abstraction that is impressively flat and consistent. The artist’s even paint application is achieved without the support of tape, yet, the works reflect the kind of balanced distribution of color found in printmaking.

This confident use of color and careful navigation of form is seen in works like Kingfisher. Here, lime-green lily pads float among a sea of lilac and orange shrubbery. The rotund greens and drifting high grasses frequently meet hidden birds, flowers, and other forms of life along the way. A stream of deep blue sky hovers above this chorus of eclectic wildlife and together, these various moving parts fit neatly beneath ribbons of proud mountains. 

Fastidious juxtaposition of hue and figuration persists in the works Pitcher Plant and Blue Lagoon. In the former, Dau renders a jubilant garden scene with a lively collage of red, magenta, green, and orange. These fragments of rich tones fill charming flora and unassuming creatures as they journey across the visual plane. In the latter, periwinkle clouds resemble rivers and ponds dispersed amidst a dense forest of purple and yellow growth. Though they illustrate diverging ecosystems, both works present a cornucopia of vegetation, gesturing toward the dynamic abundance of the natural world.

Mairikke Dau (b. 1979, San Francisco, CA) received a BFA from University of California, Santa Cruz in 2001, and an MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2013. Most recently, Dau’s work has been exhibited at Rivalry Projects, Buffalo (2023); Harper’s, Los Angeles, New York, and East Hampton (2022, 2021, and 2020); SHRINE, New York (2022 and 2020); One River School, Montclair, NJ (2022); UNTITLED, Miami Beach (2021); EXPO Chicago, online (2021); Sardine, Brooklyn (2019); and Safe Gallery, Brooklyn (2016). From 2013–17, she organized Home Perm, a performance art event at various venues in Brooklyn. Dau lives and works in New York City.

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Detail: Mairikke Dau, Pitcher Plant, 2023

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