Stilllives II: Vignette

Solo exhibit runs July 13, 2024 - January 12, 2025, Gallery 206

FIGGE ART MUSEUM, 225 West Second Street Davenport, Iowa

Via Christina Rees on Artnet: The other video that stood out for me was by Dave Greber of New Orleans. It’s projected as a big oval on the floor, like a rug or table top, and the bird’s-eye images of various objects in motion stack and layer and unfurl on top of one another in a relentless and exhilarating rhythm: fabric, plates, food, a dog, a cat, paint, everything plus the kitchen sink. It’s high-energy and hypnotic.

Artwork generously lent by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art as part of the Art Bridges’ Partner Loan Network.

From the Figge:

Dave Greber uses the fast-paced visual vocabulary of the digital world to create mesmerizing video works. Inspired by the act of setting a dinner table, Stilllives II: Vignette is projected on the floor as though you are looking down at a table being continuously reset. The video features 200 layers, including clips of mugs breaking, splashing paint, unfurling tablecloths, and his dog and cat strolling through the frame. Greber considers his videos “moving paintings,” composed of bright colors, fast cuts, and repetitive imagery.

About the Figge:

The Figge Art Museum is the premier art exhibition and education facility between Chicago and Des Moines. Its landmark glass building on the banks of the Mississippi, designed by British architect David Chipperfield, is home to one of the Midwest’s finest art collections, and presents world-class traveling exhibitions. Its studios, auditorium and spacious lobby are alive with art classes, lectures and special events that attract visitors of all ages.

The Figge was formed as the Davenport Municipal Art Gallery in 1925, with the passage of a law allowing the city to accept of a gift of 334 artworks from a former mayor, Charles A. Ficke, and open a museum. It was renamed the Davenport Museum of Art in 1987. It continued to be a city-run museum until the opening of its new building in 2005, which was named in honor of a major gift from the V.O. and Elizabeth Kahl Figge Foundation. At that time, the city transferred responsibility for management, care and exhibition of its collection to the Figge Art Museum, a nonprofit organization. Mr. Ficke’s original collection of European, American and Spanish Viceregal art has grown through the efforts of generations of philanthropists and civic leaders and now includes the Grant Wood Archive and works by other American Regionalist artists, an extensive collection of Haitian art, and contemporary works. The Figge is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.