Dreamsong

We are pleased to present the third iteration of a decades-long tradition of family shows with artists Bruce Tapola, Melba Price and Oakley Tapola. In 1993, when Oakley was only six years old, they had their first show as a family at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Now, over thirty years later, we are thrilled to present their work together for the first time at Dreamsong in Kooks, named for the David Bowie song. The exhibition features intimate portraits by Melba Price, psychedelic assemblages by Oakley Tapola and multidisciplinary works by Bruce Tapola, including a monumental painting, works on paper and bronze sculptures. In our Cinema, we present Part II of Short Stories for Discerning Readers featuring small-scale collaborative works on paper by Melba Price and Bruce Tapola.

Dreamsong is pleased to present Short Stories for Discerning Readers, Part II, a collection of small-scale, collaborative works on paper by Melba Price and Bruce Tapola. Alongside their respective studio practices, Price and Tapola have colluded, in one fashion or another, with each other and with their artist friends since 1978. In May of 2020, they began passing drawings back and forth on their porch in attempt to entertain each other with wit, skill, humor, wisdom, or lack thereof. As these works multiplied, narrative typologies began to emerge (romance, science-fiction, western) that were immediately complicated by artistic agreements and disagreements, misread contexts, and by attempts to support and undermine (to humorous effect) the other’s intentions. Bearing the hallmarks of a long and successful marriage – confusion, absurdity, love, beauty, and humor – their finished pieces read like small parts of larger stories, both integral and insignificant to their idiosyncratic and mischievous whole.