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Indepth Arts News:
"I Heard a Voice: The Art of Lesley Dill"
2010-10-01 until 2011-01-23
Columbia Museum of Art
Columbia, SC,
USA
The Columbia Museum of Art presents an exhibition of contemporary American artist Lesley Dill that focuses on her most recent large-scale theatrical work. This is the first retrospective exhibition of the artist of this scale. I Heard a Voice: The Art of Lesley Dill opens Friday, October 1, 2010 and runs through January 23, 2011.
For the last twenty years, Dill has been a sculptor, photographer, printmaker and performance artist, all while consistently exploring the human form, language, sensory experience and their interactions. An English major before she became an artist, Dill found her artistic vision when her mother gave her a book of Emily Dickinson's poetry.. Dickinson's words resonated with Dill, sparking images that the artist says she just could not ignore.
Dill's work can be both ephemeral and spiritual, drawing on her travels in India and her interest in Buddhism, as she uses bronze, photography, poetry, thread, wire and paper to sculpt figures and build tapestries. Her pieces give visual form to poetic texts by Emily Dickinson, Salvador Espriu, Franz Kafka and others. For Dill, words are her 'spiritual armor' and she freely stitches and weaves them across the surfaces of her multi-layered works.
"Language is the touchstone, the pivot point of all my work," Dill said.
Executive director of the Columbia Museum of Art, Karen Brosius, says, "We are thrilled to bring this artist's work to South Carolina. Ms. Dill's work is thoughtful and dramatic and lends itself to dynamic programming that embraces many related disciplines."
The exhibition includes 34 pieces from both public and private collections. Some of the sculptures have been created for this exhibition tour, and many have not been shown widely before. A full-color catalog and a video featuring Dill in her studio accompany the exhibition.
Dill's spectacular new installations are quite a departure for the artist and are the highlights of the exhibition. With these dramatic pieces, Dill delves into an exploration of language and its integration with the human form. In addition, the exhibition features the artist's innovative bronzes and wire pieces. These works push her earlier paper and fabric dress forms into new dimensions. The tapestry format is explored through horsehair, fabric and netting pieces. Leaves as metaphors for skin and hands, are motifs that have persisted in Dill's work for a number of years. The progression of this imagery over time and its melding with words bring together the artist's explorations of the last decade.
A native of New England, Dill currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She has a Master of Arts for Teaching from Smith College, and a Master of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute of Art. Dill's work is internationally recognized, and she has been the focus of several exhibitions, including two that have toured nationally.. Awards include a sculpture fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Her work is in numerous major American museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the High Museum and is also in the Hunter Museum of Art's collection.
A host of related programs will feature lectures, audio and gallery tours, and multi-cultural events and will be announced in September.
The exhibition was organized by the Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee in conjunction with George Adams Gallery, New York.
IMAGE
Lesley Dill (b. 1950)
Rush
2006-07
silver foil, organza, wire
Collection Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Museum purchase with funds provided by the Ruth and Seymour Klein Foundation and the Neuberger Museum of Art Collectors' Colloquium
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