Conor Dowdle '23 Debuts Solo Show 'A Wilderness of Mirrors' at DON'T LOOK Projects
How can we inhabit the 'real' in an era increasingly defined by digital simulation?
In his debut solo exhibition at DON'T LOOK Projects in Los Angeles, Conor Dowdle '23 presents a body of work that enacts and revises perception through en plein air study.
Each painting in A Wilderness of Mirrors emerges from direct contact with place, whether that be the skyscrapers of New York City or the light-dappled forests of the upper Hudson Valley. Lush yet restrained, the paintings recreate landscapes in the warm light of memory.
"A wilderness of mirrors" comes from T.S. Eliot's "Gerontion," a poem deeply concerned with the fragmentation of memory. Dowdle superimposes the phrase onto a 21st century reality, where the mirrors morph into screens reflecting "wilderness," or real life, in digital simulacra.
In the press release, Dowdle quotes John Berger's Ways of Seeing (Penguin Books, 1972): "We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves." Dowdle's practice of beginning with on-site pencil drawings provides a formal counterpoint to the internet's simultaneous placelessness and omnipresence, establishing an ongoing relationship between the artist and subject as he moves into the studio.
The night sky is flush with brushstrokes; grasses are tousled by a summer wind. To engage with the paintings is to engage with a prolonged process of looking.
A Wilderness of Mirrors is on view March 7–April 18, 2026 at DON'T LOOK Projects in Larchmont, Los Angeles.