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September Issue
2009
Weatherspoon
Art Museum in Greensboro, NC, Features Works by Dike Blair
The
Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at
Greensboro is pleased to present the exhibit, Dike Blair: Now
and Again, a major solo exhibition of the artist's work that
focuses on the years from 2001-2009, including fifty of his trademark
gouache paintings and fourteen sculptures. The exhibition opens
to the public on Sept. 13, and continues through Dec. 6, 2009.
In his paintings, Blair works within the traditional genres of landscape, still life, and portraiture to weave together the aesthetics of representation and abstraction. Similarly, his sculptures balance between a solid, utilitarian reality of three-dimensions and an illusory field of visual effects. Blair has been cited as a natural master of photo-realist painting and as an indelible influence by a growing number of young contemporary artists.
After working and exhibiting internationally for more than three decades, Blair's exhibition at the Weatherspoon is his first solo museum show and the catalogue is the first museum publication devoted to his work. Born in Pennsylvania in 1952, Blair attended Skowhegan before participating in the Whitney Independent Study Program in 1976. Since 1980, his work has been shown widely, including major group exhibitions such as Let's Entertain, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Elysian Fields, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and the 2004 Whitney Biennial, New York.
Blair teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design and is a former associate editor of Purple magazine. A collection of Blair's writings, Again: Selected Interviews and Essays, was published by WhiteWalls (Chicago, 2007). Interviews with the artist are featured in recent issues of Bomb (108/Summer 2009) and Art in America (September 2009). His work is represented by Feature, Inc., New York.
Dike Blair: Now and Again is organized for the Weatherspoon by Curator of Exhibitions Xandra Eden. The catalogue is generously supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Rhode Island School of Design Professional Development Fund. Designed by the award-winning Purtill Family Business, the 90 page full-color monograph features critical essays by Eden and film-maker, author, and arts writer Gary Indiana, as well as a selected artist's biography and exhibition checklist.
As a Falk Visiting Artist at the Weatherspoon and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Art Department from Sept. 23-25, 2009, Blair will share his knowledge and work through talks and graduate student critiques. A public artist's lecture will be held at 5:30pm on Sept. 24, 2009. The lecture is free and open to the public.
For further information
check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Museum at
336/334-5770 or e-mail to (weatherspoon@uncg.edu).
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