Curtis Mann: Precious Blood

New work by Curtis Mann

Exhibit at The Contemporary Dayton

Dayton native, Curtis Mann, returns home to present an experimental new body of work inspired by reflections on his childhood attending Parochial schools, his mother’s Catholic funeral services this past May, and the challenges he faced hiding and then embracing his atheism. Using a mixture of personal family photographs, found, and AI-generated images, Mann has cut and affixed them to shards of glass to create sculptural collages. The work presents us with questions about what a photograph is, about the precarious space between the image and the object, and about the larger ideas of absolute faith, its teachings, and leaders. The work also serves as a love letter to his mother and his own feelings of mortality. Curated by Jeffrey Cortland Jones.

Mann is a graduate of the University of Dayton, where he worked under the mentorship of Sean Wilkinson, whose work is on view in the companion exhibition, Flora, also on view. His work has been exhibited widely, most notably at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. are part of The 2024 FotoFocus Biennial: backstories. Now in its seventh iteration, the Biennial activates over 100 projects at museums, galleries, universities, and public spaces throughout Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, Dayton and Columbus, Ohio in October 2024.

Curtis Mann: Precious Blood and Sean Wilkinson: Flora are part of The 2024 FotoFocus Biennial: backstories. Now in its seventh iteration, the Biennial activates over 100 projects at museums, galleries, universities, and public spaces throughout Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, Dayton and Columbus, Ohio in October 2024.

The 2024 FotoFocus Biennial theme, backstories, focuses on stories that are not evident at first glance. They offer context for what happened previously or out of view, providing narratives not yet told or presented from a new perspective. Once told, they shed light on current circumstances and events.

Links & Tags

The Contemporary Dayton

Curtis Mann: Precious Blood is taking place at The Contemporary Dayton, which is located at 25 W 4th Street in Dayton. The Contemporary Dayton - The Contemporary Dayton is a non-profit gallery and artist resource that provides art for the community and a community for artists. (Formerly Dayton Visual Arts Center / DVAC).