Tribeca, New York
Addison Bale
The Decline in Reading
D. D. D. D.D. D. D. D. is thrilled to present The Decline in Reading, Addison Bale’s first solo exhibition in New York. This is also the gallery’s inaugural exhibition at our new location. Bale, who is also a prolific poet, creates paintings that structurally, physically and conceptually intersect image, paint, and text. Pages of his notebooks and found text often manifest as the pillars that undergird the composition of his paintings. Accompanying the show is a poem by the artist written for the exhibition’s press release: "Where does the writing begin? / Where does the painting begin?" —Roland Barthes, Empire of Signs, 1983 Progress splintered along the mortar : I stalled mid-way, mid-vision : mid-words without air : after rouge, is it blue exposing errors : and decorative metals lay low : Midnight Love isn't distraction : it's graphic : like linen leopards stretched thin : the glue works to trap texture if the glue works : to hold fuel : to perform speed and snap a voice : like skeins of pixels : are magnets for language : to find form and formulate : in the in-betweens : where paper doesn't suffice : manhattanism is footnoted : Call the bulldozer of pink glass : tiling nightscapes : like tossed love notes : fall slowly : To paint is to shrine : Blueprints of discards : oh I found the new dictionary : in half-poems marked hemlocks : in language locked shut : paper thresholds : Is Acropolis not a door to Manhattan? : Historically 2nd Ave, maybe : At least a portal to Queens : and though locks be legible : our apartment broke open : I revised the deadbolt : Why is there no natural relationship to landscapes? : gaze is a cheap shot : when painting from history : when writing back to amber : When the fuck I ever see a landscape anyway? : Never : And if I did, where? : What? : It's nothing to write : It's a prison of trees or its tourism or both : It's a poem on the Metro North at best : And : don't get me started on : the figure : I read city-grass : the light turns pepper : it is the color V : the color vague : power is yellow : and looking is reading : there is no difference : so with which color do you quit painting? [1] Addison Bale (b. 1994, NYC) lives in Brooklyn and is currently pursuing a PhD in comparative literature at the CUNY Graduate Center. Bale's paintings have featured in group shows around NYC and Mexico City. His poetry chapbooks, GALIMATíAS (MX) and Snakeskins (NY) were published in 2022 and 2018 respectively. Read his essay, "On Translation, Codification, and Something in Between: Language in the Paintings of Martin Wong," on hopscotchtranslation.com. Recipient of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant in 2024, this is Bale's first solo exhibition. 1 - Rosselli, Amelia. Document. Translated by Roberta Antognini and Deborah Woodard, World Poetry Books, 2025, p. 31. Partly composed with words and feedback from Izzy Boutiette and Max Vélez, so much love.