Philip Martin Gallery is proud to present, "Sequencer," an exhibition of new works-on-paper by Tomory Dodge. Executed in colored pencil, Tomory Dodge's drawings follow a generative formal logic that operates according to its own terms, stacking line, color and shape in sequenced compositions.
Over three decades of practice, Los Angeles-based artist Tomory Dodge has built a language of abstraction in which the picture plane serves as a kind of visual pivot with flipping space and floating forms operating as levers, one against the other, revealing aspects of each. Tomory Dodge's new works-on-paper he writes, "reference abstract languages of the past, but only hold to them loosely." Dodge's vibrant works imply the all-over compositions of mid-20th century abstract artists like Larry Poons or Cy Twombly; at the same time, they engage an entirely new visual expression that reflects the 21st century and its awareness of the kind of dynamic complex systems we see in such varying fields as brain science, economics, biology and artificial intelligence.
Tomory Dodge's works flow from, "a simple act - or a series of simple acts," like, "dropping a pebble in a pond and watching the waves radiate outward." In works such as, "The Electric Company," "Come Let Your Hair Down" and "Hardcore Decor," Dodge begins by, "dividing the paper in two vertically. I then draw on one side of the line and respond to it on the other. I work outwards towards the edges of the paper, deviating from the pattern at times, letting mistakes stand as they make organic sense and adjusting for them as I build the final work."
In Dodge's densely patterned works there are small passages of organic expression - freeform patches of marks that hover over outwardly spreading sequences of shape, line, color and texture. These hovering marks keep the eye moving into, out of and around the picture plane. "The seemingly random marks which seem to float across the surfaces of the drawings are references to my paintings, in which previous layers of paint application are painted over. In my paintings, small untouched previous sections are allowed to peak through - creating a visual disturbance to the flatness of the imagery."
"I have long been fascinated by the alchemy of modern image creation having realized as a child that the pictures on my family’s old analog TV set were composed of little dots. Since then, I have been interested in the image in painting on both the 'molecular' and 'macro' levels; how one can show and see both the forest and the trees at the same time." Dodge's works offer the viewer tools to consider, enjoy and engage not only with the ways in which paintings and drawings are experienced, but also the ways in which they are organized and come together at a time of our ubiquitous hand-held devices. We order and navigate a world of organic complexity. Tomory Dodge's art addresses these topics in surprising ways, considering the workings of interiority, agency and expression in today’s always growing and changing modern world.
Tomory DODGE (b. 1974, Denver, CO) received his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI) and his MFA from California Institute of the Arts (Valencia, CA) in 2004. Recent exhibitions include "Mirrors and Windows" and "Newfoundland and Back" at Philip Martin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); Miles McEnery Gallery (New York, NY); LUX Art Institute (Encinitas, CA); "Stranger Than Paradise,” Rhode Island School of Design Museum (Providence, RI); "Grafforists," Torrance Art Museum (Torrance, CA); "Nowism," Pizzuti Collection (Columbus, OH); "An Appetite For Painting," National Museum (Oslo, Norway); "Pouring It On," Herter Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts (Amherst, MA); “Directions to a Dirty Place,” Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (Winston-Salem, NC); "Future Tense: Reshaping the Landscape,” Neuberger Museum of Art (Purchase, NY); "American Soil," Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park, KS); and Sheldon Memorial Gallery, University of Nebraska (Lincoln, NE). Dodge’s work is in the collections of such museums as Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, CA); Orange County Museum of Art (Newport Beach, CA); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, (San Francisco, CA); Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley, CA); Henry Art Gallery (Seattle, WA); Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, TX); Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park, KS); Weisman Art Museum (Minneapolis, MN); Minneapolis Institute of Art (Minneapolis, MN); Orlando Museum of Art (Orlando, FL); Knoxville Museum of Art (Knoxville, TN); Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (Birmingham, AL); Weatherspoon Art Museum (Greensboro, NC); Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC); RISD Museum, Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI); Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, CT); and Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY). Dodge's work is the subject of several monographic catalogs and has been discussed in such publications as Artforum, Flash Art, Modern Painters, Art Review, Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times. Dodge lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Tomory Dodge's exhibition, "Sequencer," is online February 11 - 25, 2026. All works may be viewed at the gallery on request.
Philip Martin Gallery is open Wednesday - Saturday from 11-5, and by appointment. For additional images, or information please email info@philipmartingallery.com, or call 323-507-2037. Philip Martin Gallery is located at 3342 Verdugo Road, Los Angeles, CA 90065 in the Glassell Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.
