URSA Gallery is pleased to feature two significant shows this spring. Works by Douglas Degges

16 April–28 May 2022

A Squirrel from Memory is an ongoing project by artist Douglas Degges comprising two divergent image-making processes that explore familial relationships, distance from home, and the pressure to possess a singular voice or vision within a creative practice. The project was born out of the artist’s decision to work with increasingly personal and localized imagery while tending to creative practice as a collaborative activity. Since 2019, Degges has been working primarily from cell phone photos supplied to him by his immediate family in an ongoing group text; they share the things they do and see near his childhood home in Louisiana. While not included in this exhibition, a significant portion of the project consists of small drawings on paper: literal, time-intensive translations of photographic images, mostly of landscapes and animals found in the southeastern United States. As a foil to the drawings, the paintings, like the ones included in this exhibition, are crafted primarily from the memory of making the drawings and are approached in a fast paced and painterly way.