| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
September Issue 2005
Greenville Museum of Art in Greenville, NC, Features Retrospective of Michael A. Dorsey
The
Greenville Museum of Art in Greenville, NC, will present a retrospective
exhibition entitled, Michael A. Dorsey: The Beauty Salon Series,
featuring 30 works from 1975 - 1998 by this East Carolina University
School of Art and Design professor. The exhibition will be on
view from Sept. 14 through Oct. 30, 2005. A four-color catalogue
with an essay by art historian Michael Duffy accompanies the exhibition.
Dorsey's works have appeared in over 300 competitive and invitational exhibitions over the past 35 years, and are held publicly and privately throughout Europe and the United States, in collections such as the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg, the Library Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, Temari Book Archive of Hololulu, and Italy's University of Perugia.
Dorsey, a prolific cartoonist and illustrator for a variety of publications, was the first president and founding member of the Mississippi Watercolor Society, and has served as an accreditation evaluator for the National Association of Schools of Art and Design since 1989.
The Beauty Salon Series was inspired by Dorsey's service to the family business in Findlay, OH. From age nine until leaving for college, Dorsey served as custodian for a five-booth beauty salon connected to the kitchen of the family residence.
Inspired by the pedestrian experiences related by authors such as William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, and Eudora Welty, Dorsey uses the series to explore daily life in both modern and historical contexts.
Early works in the series explain the culture of the beauty salon, including The Conversation (1984), which addresses the intimacy of discourse within the salon; Barb and Jill (1985), featuring two patrons partially prepared for prom night; and 127 West Hardin (1985), an autobiographical work including anecdotes from Dorsey's childhood.
Many of the works are rooted in history, such as Edwardian Beauty Salon, Samurai Salon, and Proto-Renaissance Beauty Salon.
Other works address life issues, such as Hair Dryer Victim, which explores beauty; and Ernest Hemingway Died in the Beauty Salon, an interpretation of Dorsey's memory of the news of the author's suicide - which Dorsey heard alongside patrons at the family business.
The East Carolina University professor of art has served as Dean of the School of Art and Design from 1991 until 2003, when he became interim dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication. The Beauty Salon retrospective marks Dorsey's transition from creative leave to classroom service.
For further information check our NC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the Museum at 252/758-1946 or at (www.gmoa.org).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing
Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2005 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2005 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.