My solo exhibition Color Coded recently concluded at the Engine Room Art Space in Hagerstown, Maryland. This was an excellent venue, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to exhibit the majority of the anatomically-themed sculptures and drawings from this body of work. Though I’ve taken a break from these pieces over the past couple of years, this exhibit has inspired to revisit the formal and conceptual themes of the Color Coded series in the very near future.
My solo exhibition Color Coded opened recently at Washington and Jefferson College’s Olin Art Gallery, marking the first time that the entire Color Coded series (2005-2012) has been exhibited in the same venue. The most fun part of this show, besides getting nearly a decade’s worth of anatomically-inspired artwork under one roof, was creating a large scale graphite wall drawing specifically for the gallery. Drawing directly on the wall definitely added a fresh new dimension to the overall exhibit, and the monochromatic quality of the graphite was a nice contrast to the layered, multicolored qualities of the works in this series. Color Coded is on display from October 30-December 6, 2015.
I had an amazing time this past month teaching in the Mountaineer Summer Drawing Academy, a three-day art camp for high schoolers held on the campus of West Virginia University. After spending the better part of the past year planning for this event, I was thrilled to see our joint venture between the College of Creative Arts and the WVU Extension Service come together so successfully!
Students received instruction in both observational and mixed media drawing, while also exploring “Exquisite Corpse” drawings, a group collaborative exercise made famous by 20th-century Surrealists. Other camp highlights included button making, a storytelling session with entertainer Adam Booth, and various interaction with State 4-H Days participants. Now that we’ve had a successful maiden voyage for this camp, I am looking forward to planning next year’s session and growing both the number of participants and the scope of this program.
I am happy to report that my work will be featured Art Biologic, a juried exhibition at Hudson, New York’s Limner Gallery focusing on art inspired by nature and biology. The piece that got into this show, The space cadets flap their wings in three-part harmony, came together from a variety of sources, including manipulated anatomical diagrams, a vintage NASA poster, high resolution scans from dragonfly wings, and hand-drawn imagery.
The space cadets flap their wings in three-part harmony
I am happy to report that two of my drawings were accepted into the 34th Bradley International Print and Drawing Exhibition. This is the second longest running juried print and drawing show in the country, featuring 108 artists from around the world, so it feels particularly good to be a part of it. Here are images of the accepted drawings, both of which are mixed media works from 2009:
Feed the meat machine, mixed media on paper, 22” x 30”, 2009
Even cowmen get the blues, mixed media on vellum, 37” x 26, 2009
I had a great time last week as a guest of the Department of Art at Mississippi State University. My solo exhibition Color Coded, on view in the McComas Gallery, was held concurrently with Consumption, a solo exhibition by Adelaide Paul on view in the Visual Arts Center Gallery. Adelaide and I have very complimentary sensibilities and were well matched for this exhibition series. We gave joint artist’s talks, had critiques with assistant professor Critz Campbell’s sculpture class, and were treated to some wonderful closing reception festivities with the MSU community.
Adelaide received a B.F.A. in ceramics from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, and an MFA in Studio Art from Louisiana State University. She teaches at both MICA and the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, and is a recipient of a PEW Fellowship in the Arts in 2007. Here is a terrific video about her studio work.
For the Sweater Constellation series, I was interested in exploring how an image could evolve organically from cutting and pasting discarded materials and melding them with ink, paint, epoxy resin, and other media. By imposing order on randomly gathered elements, the finished pieces were imbued with an appealing element of chance. This method of working helped me create dense compositions and fragmented narratives, which I believe embodies the dizzying, contradictory impulses shaping contemporary life.
This series of work is currently on display at some excellent venues. One of these pieces was chosen for the regional juried exhibition OH + 5 2012, at the Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio, while two of the panels are featured in a show of contemporary drawing, Drawing Muchness, at the University of North Florida Gallery of Art in Jacksonville, Florida.
Dylan Ethan Collins 