John Dilg

Iowa-City based artist John Dilg’s (b. 1945) imagery derives from a life-long meditation on his relationship to the land and its vulnerability in human hands. In terms of the fragility our contemporary land possesses, the artist's concern acts to foster the views of regret and the sense of latent danger that often appear in the paintings.

These are not landscape paintings; rather, Dilg intends the idea of “landscape” to function as a trope that makes possible a record of his tendency to view and remember, in an abstract, metaphoric language, this relationship with the land. The memory of land is a reservoir of abstraction; as such, it is in service to both survival and the kind of advantageous “beauty” found in most natural encounters.

John Dilg received a B.F.A. in Painting and Filmmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design. One and two-person exhibitions include: Jeff Bailey Gallery, Hudson, NY, (2-P), 2014; Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, 2013; Regina Rex, Queens, (2-P), 2013, and Rhodes College, Memphis, 2012. Group exhibitions include Whitespace Gallery, Atlanta, 2015; Sikkema Jenkins & Co., NY, 2012; Lesley Heller Workspace, NY, 2011; and Edward Thorp Gallery, NY, 2010.

Dilg’s works are in the collections of several institutions, including the Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR; the Figge Museum of Art, Davenport, IA; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, among others. Reviews include Art in America, The New York Times, The New Art Examiner and The Boston Globe.

Submitted by Taymour Grahne Projects