True Conceal: Katie Hargrave & Meredith Lynn

The Dodd Galleries present True Conceal, an exhibition of new work by collaborators Katie Hargrave and Meredith Lynn from their Bad Outdoorsman series. In True Conceal, Hargrave and Lynn use several commercially manufactured camo brand patterns to explore the landscape as it is seen by major outdoor recreation industry professionals.  

The work Bad Outdoorsmen (Post Production) continues an ongoing investigation into how the “outdoors” is constructed, staged, and consumed. In this installation, two backdrops hang side by side: one printed with a hyper-detailed camouflage pattern, the other a flat, artificial green screen; each suggesting a different kind of illusion. Camouflage promises seamless integration into a “natural” environment, while the green screen signals a space where any environment can be inserted later. Both operate as tools of fabrication. By pairing camouflage with chroma key green, the work collapses distinctions between wilderness and studio, authenticity and post-production. The “outdoorsman” becomes a constructed identity, shaped as much by media and performance as by lived experience. What appears rugged and instinctual is instead rehearsed, edited, and mediated.

With brand names like “True Timber,” “Real Tree,” and “Mossy Oak,” the contemporary outdoor industry traffics in a realistic vision of the woods, where it is perpetually fall, oak leaves cling to the trees, and the thick underbrush makes visibility low. However, this vision is one that will never match reality, as historically camouflage did not need to when it was only about hiding from game animals. Now—as camo becomes a fashion statement and outdoorsmanship is status symbol—Hargrave and Lynn collage these “realistic” camouflage patterns into new meanings.

Exhibition opening  
Thursday, Aug 27 
5-7pm

Katie Hargrave and Meredith Laura Lynn are artists and educators who work collaboratively to explore the historic, cultural, and environmental impacts of so-called public land. Their work has been shown at University of Wyoming Museum of Art (Laramie, WY), Crisp Ellert Art Museum (St. Augustine, FL), Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (Salt Lake City, UT),  Knoxville Museum of Art (Knoxville, TN), Atlanta Contemporary (Atlanta, GA), the Wiregrass Museum of Art (Dothan, AL), Gadsden Museum of Art (Gadsden, AL), Austin Peay State University (Clarksville, TN), Granary Arts (Ephraim, UT) (and many others) and has been published by Workshop Arts, Walls Divide Press, Western Confluence Magazine, and Epicenter. Their work has been covered in press including Hyperallergic, Burnaway, Art Papers, Dovetail, Ruckus, New Art Examiner. Together they have been artists in residence at the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum (St. Augustine, FL) and Signal Fire (Portland, OR). Hargrave and Lynn met at the University of Iowa, where they both earned MFAs. They have been collaborating since 2018 and continue to maintain independent studio practices. Hargrave is a Professor of Art at University of Tennessee Chattanooga and Lynn is an Associate Professor of Art at Florida State University.

For more information, contact Rachel Waldrop, Director and Curator, Dodd Galleries and Atheneum: rachel.waldrop@uga.edu. The Dodd Galleries are open M-Fri in the main Lamar Dodd School of Art building, from 9am-4:30pm. The Lamar Dodd School of Art is closed on weekends, University holidays, and home football game days. See art.uga.edu for more information.

True Conceal is supported by UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and The Lamar Dodd School of Art. For support opportunities, contact Lynh Tran, Associate Director of Development lynh.tran@uga.edu