Corbett vs. Dempsey

About the Gallery
Corbett vs. Dempsey LLC was founded by Jim Dempsey and John Corbett and opened its previous space on North Ashland Avenue in September 2004. Since opening, Corbett vs. Dempsey has presented a range of international artists and artists connected with the historical and contemporary legacy of Chicago. The gallery's mission has included extensive exploration of widely known artists including Ellen Berkenblit, Brian Calvin, Arturo Herrera, Charline von Heyl, Dick Higgins, Rebecca Morris, Albert Oehlen, Joyce Pensato, Arlene Shechet, and Christopher Wool, supporting emerging and mid-career figures including Christina Forrer, Gabrielle Garland, Magalie Guérin, David Hartt, Celeste Rapone, Rebecca Shore, Lui Shtini, Cauleen Smith, John Sparagana, Omar Velázquez, and Molly Zuckerman-Hartung, and championing artists of critical significance to post-war Chicago including Margot Bergman, Dominick Di Meo, Edward Flood, Philip Hanson, Thomas H. Kapsalis, Robert Lostutter, Christina Ramberg, Diane Simpson, Karl Wirsum, and Jimmy Wright. Creative music has always been a feature of the gallery's activities; in addition to having its own record label, CvsD is proud to represent Peter Brötzmann and the estate of Sun Ra.

About the Presentation
Corbett vs. Dempsey will present work by Gregg Bordowitz and David Harttin at Independent. Two artists with rich, varied practices, Bordowitz and Hartt are both engaged in conceptual and site-sensitive investigations, each equally compelled by complexity, craftsmanship, and design as by concepts, history, and ideas. New York based artist Gregg Bordowitz (b. 1964) is well known for his work as a writer, AIDS activist, and teacher; his Tetragrammaton monotypes were recently featured in exhibitions at UB Art Gallery (Buffalo), The Brick (Los Angeles), Camden Arts Centre (London), and Bonner Kunstverein (Bonn, Germany), in the latter three instances, accompanied by his wall-hanging "cloud" sculptures. Poetic and allusive, these works, outstanding examples of which will be presented at Independent, occupy a space of deep meditative intensity. David Hartt (b. 1967) is based in Philadelphia, where he is on the faculty at Penn. Emerging with a post-studio practice rooted in photography, Hartt has been widely exhibited in institutional contexts, often presenting densely layered multi-disciplinary bodies of work, recently focused on Jacquard tapestries. These textiles interrogate photographic images critically, with attention to multivalent social and historical associations, the medium's qualities of abstracting and softening a picture drawing out their painterly connotations.