Dennis Powers: Assemblage 1985-2016

Since 1985, Dennis Powers has gathered and pieced together found objects native to Fire Island and Saugerties, New York—two places that serve as foundations for his personal and creative life. His assemblages come together as records of process, both organic and synthetic. Influenced by the art of Man Ray, Kurt Schwitters, Marcel Duchamp, Louise Nevelson, and Joseph Cornell, Powers works in a quasi-Dadaist sculptural mode, composing dramatic arrangements of elements not originally intended as pieces of art themselves. He juxtaposes naturally weathered woods and pieces of metal, ceramic, nuts, bolts, balls, and acrylic paint in order to make aesthetic sense out of this chaotic combination of materials. His collages bring together diverse and often pointed individual histories. Each piece stands independently and as part of his larger location-based narrative.