Lucy Dodd

Lucy Dodd (born 1981, New York) is an American painter and installation artist. Dodd synthesizes pigments from various organic and inorganic matter. Her work frequently invokes art historical and mythological symbolism. Dodd has been critically compared[1] to mid-century artists Cy Twombly, Sigmar Polke, and Robert Ryman.[2]

Early life and education

Dodd studied at the Art Center College of Design, California (BFA, 2004) and Bard College, New York (MFA, 2011).[3] She lives and works in Kingston, New York.[4]

Work

Dodd stages exhibitions with a dramaturgical approach, and considers her paintings "characters."[5] This staging typically consists of a ritual entrance, furniture and other decorative arts assembled in the style of a "bohemian bazaar," and monumental canvas paintings.[5] In a 2018 interview with artist Rashid Johnson, Dodd explained: “I think about painting in a theatrical way. [...] The paintings are actually characters that people have to interact with.”[6] Dodd prefers her paintings be displayed in the round "as an object," rather than flush against a wall.[6] Her paintings are often dispersed throughout a gallery and visible on all sides.[7]

Monumental painting

Dodd’s use of the monumental painting format refers to the gendered history of lyrical abstraction and action painting.[8] Her debut New York solo exhibition at the project space No5A in 2013, The Studio Before 54, consisted of three large-scale paintings produced from the rubbings of various dry minerals, including graphite and iron glimmer. Listed materials also included “the souls of the shoes of Nanette Lepore, Margiela, Clergerie, a half calf cowboy boot, a no name mule, a foot with foss mud.”[8]

Throughout her work, Dodd uses both “traditional pigments and those opportunity presents her,” such as SCOBYs, onion skins, avocado pits, tulips, and yew berries.[2] These materials are sometimes site-specific; for example a series of paintings commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2016 for its experimental five-part exhibition, Open Plan, in which she incorporated samples of water from the nearby Hudson River.[9] Dodd understands each painting as “an organic entity" and embraces its chemical “possibility of transformation." [7] In his review of her 2013 solo show Cake 4 Catfish at David Lewis Gallery, Jerry Saltz described Dodd’s “topographic” paintings as “two-dimensional animals with inbuilt chemistries, going through secret artistic caramelizations and painterly photosynthesis, converting liquids and semisolids into bliss.”[10]

Symbolism

In her practice Dodd explores “the exhibition as a ritualized space -- in which paintings conceived as characters, mythical and poetic fragments, or totems, are activated and transformed over a period of time.”[11] Her work and its viewers are "cast" as “protagonists in a highly complex theatre of signifiers.”[7] These signifiers are drawn from elemental, art historical, and religious iconographies such as: logarithmic spirals, the bony labyrinth, the Cretan labyrinth, the Georgian dragon, Greek mythology, astrological symbols, Venus and the Divine Feminine, Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, and mid-century modern furniture.[7]

Dodd conceived of a single monumental painting the exact size of Picasso's Guernica for an exhibition at the Rubell Family Collection in 2014.[12] The durational project, titled Guernika, culminated three years of her research on the history and mythology of Guernica and Picasso. A corresponding book, The Genesis of a Painting, was released.[12] Its title refers to the eponymous 1962 book by Rudolf Arnheim. The Genesis of a Painting remakes Picasso’s catalogue "into a visual epic where Dodd, the hero, is joined by two companions of her own creation: a starfish, a symbol of nature’s innate mirroring, and the Maize Mantis, a shepherd character loosely inspired by the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.”[2]

Ritual and performance

Dodd’s performative approach to painting is often characterized as 'ritualistic.'[6] She considers her paintings “absorbent” of both the visible and the “invisible” conditions of their production, for instance the particular music Dodd plays in her studio; the “smoke, sage, copal, lavender, [and] cedar" she uses to “defume” her work; and the performers she enlists to “activate” an exhibition.[6] Her paintings have been described as "unwieldy," having been ritually "splashed, stained, or smoked" by their materials.[6] Writes Rashid Johnson: “These unlikely and far-from-archival sources of pigmentation are akin to a shaman’s brew, not only in their earthy origins but also in their activation through ritual. ”[6] Dodd often incorporates performance into her exhibitions, and has collaborated with other musical and performance artists such as Dawn Kasper and Sergei Tcherepnin.[9]

Exhibitions

Dodd has been exhibited at The Power Station, Dallas;[13] Rubell Family Collection, Miami;[14] David Lewis, New York;[15] Sprüth Magers, Berlin; Mendes Wood DM, Sao Paulo;[16] and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles;[17] The Rachofsky Collection, The Warehouse, Dallas; Skarstedt, New York;[18] Altman Siegel, San Francisco;[19] Campoli Presti, Paris;[20] Galleria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples;[21] Kaufmann Repetto, Milan; Armada, Milan; Meyer Kainer, Vienna;[22] ProChoice, Vienna; Front Desk Apparatus, New York; White Columns, New York;[23] The Kitchen, New York, and Performa 11.

Collections

Dodd’s work is included in the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York;[9] Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York;[24] Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN;[25] Aïshti Foundation, Beirut;[26] Sammlung Goetz, Münich, Germany;[27] The Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL.[14]

References
  1. "Jerry Saltz: Lucy Dodd's Painting Intoxicates (and So Do Her Cocktails)". Vulture. 2013-12-03. Retrieved 2018-06-24.
  2. "Artist Lucy Dodd Prepares for Two Upcoming Solo Shows". Cultured Magazine. 2018-03-24. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  3. "Lucy Dodd - Reviews - Art in America". artinamericamagazine.com. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  4. "The Top Emerging Artists of 2016". Artsy. 2016-12-14. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  5. "Lucy Dodd: 'Cake 4 Catfish'". The New York Times. 2014-01-09. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  6. "Lucy Dodd by Rashid Johnson - BOMB Magazine". bombmagazine.org. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  7. "Lucy Dodd Sprüth Magers / Berlin". Flash Art. 2017-06-16. Retrieved 2017-11-02.
  8. Smith, Roberta (2013-02-28). "Lucy Dodd: 'The Studio Before 54'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-05-30.
  9. "Open Plan: Lucy Dodd | Whitney Museum of American Art". whitney.org. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  10. "Jerry Saltz: Lucy Dodd's Painting Intoxicates (and So Do Her Cocktails)". Vulture. 2013-12-03. Retrieved 2017-11-02.
  11. Lewis, David. "Wuv Shop Press Release" (PDF).
  12. "The Best Private Collections at Art Basel Miami - artnet News". artnet News. 2014-12-01. Retrieved 2017-11-02.
  13. "LUCY DODD - The Power Station". The Power Station. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  14. "Lucy Dodd". rfc.museum. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  15. "Lucy Dodd - David Lewis". David Lewis. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  16. "Mendes Wood DM | Lucy Dodd - Part Time Nuns". Mendes Wood DM. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  17. "Lucy Dodd | Blum & Poe". blumandpoe.com. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  18. "Nice Weather - Gallery Exhibitions - Skarstedt Gallery". skarstedt.com. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  19. "From Counterculture to Cyberculture - Altman Siegel". Altman Siegel. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  20. "The Pleasure of the Text | CAMPOLI PRESTI". CAMPOLI PRESTI (in French). Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  21. keybox. "http://www.alfonsoartiaco.com/web/index.cfm?box=news&id=3DBD9A6A-6395-4EF8-9F34505F3C34ED66". alfonsoartiaco.com (in Italian). Retrieved 2018-05-20. External link in |title= (help)
  22. "Galerie Meyer Kainer". meyerkainer.com. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  23. "White Columns - Exhibitions". whitecolumns.org. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  24. "Wishing of Wuz". Guggenheim. 2016-01-01. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  25. Dodd, Lucy. "Lucy Dodd Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). davidlewisgallery.com.
  26. Foundation, Aishti. "Aishti Foundation - on view - Press Release". Aishti Foundation. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  27. "GenerationsFemale Artists in DialoguePart 1 - Sammlung Goetz". sammlung-goetz.de. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
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