Artist Info: Dawn Black
Bio
Dawn Black was born in Louisiana where she received a BFA from Louisiana State University. She earned both MA and MFA, specializing in Painting and Sculpture, from the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History. In 2000, she spent the summer exploring Venice, Italy while making prints at Scoula di Graphica, a printmaking studio on the Grand Canal. She has had solo exhibitions at Curator’s Office, Washington DC, Kunstoffice, Berlin, Germany and Eve Drewelowe Gallery, Iowa City, IA. Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, notably: School 33 (Baltimore, MD), Morehead State University (Morehead, KY), Florida State University Museum of Art (Tallahassee, FL), Reynolds Gallery at the University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA), Sanchez Art Center (Pacifica, CA), City College Art Gallery (San Francisco, CA), Upstate Artists Guild (Albany, NY), Jonathan Ferrara Gallery (New Orleans, LA), Shaw Center for the Arts (Baton Rouge, LA), Gallery 119 (Chicago, IL), and University of Iowa Museum of Art (Iowa City, IA). Her work has been recently reviewed by the Washington Post, Art Papers magazine, and online at www.artinamerica.com and is in various private collections, notably the Zacharius collection. Currently, she is an artist in residence at Lawndale Art Center in Houston, TX and is preparing for a March 2010 solo exhibition at Get This! Gallery in Atlanta, GA. Her work is represented by Curator’s Office.
Statement
The practice of masquerade, especially its role in relation to identity is fascinating to me. Of particular interest is a disguise’s ability to engender the wearer powerful through clandestine anonymity and paradoxically its ability to allow the concealed to be his or her authentic self as remarked by Oscar Wilde, “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” Which identity is authentic, the intrinsic self or the identity acquired through masquerade or do they create a third identity through a blending of the two?
My drawings explore my own mania regarding “authentic” identity and of society’s at large by depicting scenes of figures meticulously drawn in gouache, watercolor, and ink on paper. These figures are all “found”, being culled from the Internet and various periodicals. Selecting real figures from the past and present (mainly focusing on any and all world societies from the 1850s to present) and then arranging those figures into a single composition has the effect of condensing time, since many different time periods and histories are present in one image. The figure’s ambiguous relationships then become intertwined with the viewer’s own beliefs regarding the authentic and the covert, the formidable and the meek, the sincere and the false witness and are intended to invoke the aura of a forgotten myth or a foreboding parable while exploring, satirizing, and critiquing current events and social conventions. Currently, I am working on a series of works called Extinct-a-thon that explore atrocities of war, such as the battle of Antietam, Maryland (US Civil War, 1862) and the genocide of the Killing Fields (Cambodia, 1976). Within these documented scenes, I juxtapose a single figure that in some way speaks to how society views these heinous acts.
Another ongoing body of work is the Conceal Project is an array of persons, whose disguises vastly range from masquerade to disfigurement. The project currently comprises 150 such figures (each drawn on a piece of 7½” x 5½” paper) and I am continuing to add more.
Artist's CV
SOLO AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2010 // Mad Semblance, Get This! Gallery, Atlanta, GA (March)
2009 // Conceal Project, Curator’s Office, Washington, DC
2007 // Paintings by Dawn Black & Lori Larusso, Chesapeake Art Gallery, Bel Air, MD
Veils and Lamentations, City Arts Gallery, City College of San Francisco, SF, CA
2005 // Interlaced, Kunstoffice, Berlin, Germany
Black and Gold, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, LA
H-Hour, Oculus Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA
2001 // Trust the Pyro Techies, Eve Drewelowe Gallery, Iowa City, IA
Iron Folds, Bryon Burford Gallery, Iowa City, IA
2000 // Whatever You Love You Are, Byron Burford Gallery, Iowa City, IA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2010 // Round Four, Lawndale Center for the Arts, Houston, TX (May)
New Members Exhibition, Baton Rouge Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA (June)
2009 // Beyond Appearances, Lehman Gallery, CUNY, Bronx, NY
Summer Dock, Curator’s Office, Washington, DC
Masked, School 33, Baltimore, MD
2008 // Scope Art Fair, Curator’s Office Booth, Miami, FL
Self Evident: Contemporary American Self-Portraiture, Morehead State Uni., Morehead, KY
2007 // Faculty Show, Los Medanos College, Pittsburg, CA
Combined Talents, Florida State University Museum of Art, Tallahassee, FL
TVAA National, Irving Arts Center, Irving, TX
Juror: Andrea Karnes, Curator, Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art
Transgressions , Reynolds Gallery, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA
2006 // Bay Area Annual, Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA
Juror: Karen Kienzle, Curator, de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University
3rd Annual National Juried Exhibition, Novato Art Center, Novato, CA
Juror: Frances McCormack, Professor, San Francisco Art Institute
Pretty Girls & Robots, Upstate Artists Guild, Albany, NY
2005 // Faculty Show, Los Medanos College, Pittsburg, CA
Fresh Greens, Shaw Center for the Arts, Baton Rouge, LA
2004 // No Dead Artists, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Blue, Louisiana State University Art Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA
Storytellers, Los Medanos College, Pittsburg, CA
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
2011 // McColl Center for the Arts, Charlotte, NC
2009 // Lawndale Art Center, Houston TX
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, VA
Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Nebraska City, NE (alternate)