Craig Dongoski's Land of Heroes/Hand of Zeros at Whitespace

The gravel crunches underfoot as you walk up the driveway of an Inman Park home. Down an open-air path is the renovated carriage house Whitespace814 is known for, dappled in the sunlight that floods through the surrounding trees. Through its glass doors you can see one of the largest pieces in Land of Heroes/Hand of Zeros, Craig Dongoski’s recent exhibition with the gallery. 

Installation view of Walking The Statues Before and After Democracy, pen and ink on panel.

From a distance, the subject matter of the piece is clearly defined: an illustration of a Greek sculpture on a panel, surrounded by familiar shapes such as hands, circles, and two vases. It isn’t until you enter through the doors, cool air hitting your face, that you realize there must be more to the piece. Its definition loses clarity with the closer perspective. Your curiosity invoked by the piece, you get as close to it as you respectfully can. You’re now face-to-face with Dongoski’s mark-making and the realization hits that the entire piece is made of methodical, numerical-like marks. Millions of them. 

Craig Dongoski’s work is a testament to the inherent duality of mark and print making, a process not often thought of for its durational performance qualities. Shapes placed on top of the panel block out negative space while Dongoski uses ink and pen to create micro detail that will eventually give way to the macro view of the 84”x 48” x 03” Walking The Statues Before and After Democracy. There is a psychedelic quality to the work as well. Informed by the music Dongoski makes, numerals etched in negative space fuse with elements of synthesizers and guitar pedals. In both its reference and reality, the work is full of sensation. 

View of boards from Whitespace’s showing of Craig Dongoski’s work, titled Land of Heroes/Hand of Zeros

To walk between the show’s pieces is to find evidence of our need to meaning-make, not only in the now, but throughout time immemorial. There is no way to separate the vision invoked of the artist, hunched over and scratching at a board in white ink, from the act of seeing Cosmogony (The Ways of the World) or any other of the show’s pieces. The purpose, and perhaps Dongoski’s larger ethos, is to ensure that the present moment becomes part of the process of viewing. In a world where museum goers spend more time having their outfits photographed than looking at the art, this show inspires full immersion and palpable wonder.

Land of Heroes/Hand of Zeros will be on view at WhiteSpace through March 1st, 2025. Thursdays through Saturdays, 11-5 pm or by appointment.