DCCA Show

Personified Doubles and Complementary Opposites

Exhibit Dates: 

 Aug 1, 2014 - Nov 30, 2014

Location: 

 DCCA Beckler Family Members’ Gallery

Dawn Hunter’s paintings reveal a vivid cast of costumed characters enacting dreamlike scenarios in lush landscapes. Reminiscent of the films of the Italian director Federico Fellini, Hunter’s works combine nature, fantasy, and baroque imagery to intense psychological effect. Inspired by the Italian Baroque painter Giovanni Mannozzi’s painted female personifications of dusk and dawn, Hunter visualizes such themes of duality and contrast in her archetypal representations of men and women.

Hunter states, “Female stereotypes are constructed as balanced compositions of archetypes and prototypes, thus creating a compelling connection between that which resonates with our cultural identity and that which advertisers encourage us to pursue.” Sourcing mass-produced images of fashion models found in magazine advertisements, the artist uses these as the basis for the figures in her paintings. In this way, Dawn Hunter frames a new subjective narrative by appropriating the stereotypical models from their commercial context and recasting them in powerful, atypical roles.

-Maiza Hixson
Gretchen Hupfel Curator of Contemporary Art

Below are highlights from my exhibition at the Delaware Contemporary Art Center held during the fall of 2014.

My Daily Mantra

Its all about the line all of the time.

Some details from a work in progress below:

It is impossible to do a thing the way I see it because the closer I get the more differently I see.

- Alberto Giacometti

Photos from my exhibition at the University of West Georgia

Exhibition statement:

"Dawn Hunter is primarily known for creating socio and political artworks that often address women's issues within contemporary culture.  The exhibition "Immediate Observations" highlights an important thread within and which is an integral part of the artist's studio practice:  drawings and paintings done from direct observation.  These works are straight forward and inspired from the artist's daily interaction with her immediate environment; like an arrangement of toys in her daughter's bedroom or a landscape location that is noticed during a walk to work.  Works in the show are comprised of sketchbook entries and long term, large scale paintings and drawings." 

The exhibition was held from October 23-December 4, 2014.

At work on a special commission...

I usually do not accept commission work.  Commissions are an interesting tight rope as they are a fusion of the vision of someone else, the intended recipient, and personal artistic practice.  This one is going well so far.

Final work in progress.

Preliminary sketch.

With a circus mind that's running around
Butterflies and zebras, and moonbeams and fairy tales
That's all she ever thinks about, riding with the wind

- Jimi Hendrix 

Crazyhorse

The studio production has taken on a different focus during the recent weeks.  Here is the fall 2014 edition of crazyhorse featuring my painting Art Department on the front and back covers.  Thank you College of Charleston!

Read more about the painting Art Department click here.

Painting in process...

...and almost done, but not complete.

A Wind Has Blown The Rain Away And Blown, by E. E. Cummings

a wind has blown the rain away and blown
the sky away and all the leaves away,
and the trees stand.  I think i too have known
autumn too long

                  (and what have you to say,
wind wind wind—did you love somebody
and have you the petal of somewhere in your heart
pinched from dumb summer?
                            O crazy daddy
of death dance cruelly for us and start

the last leaf whirling in the final brain
of air!)Let us as we have seen see
doom’s integration………a wind has blown the rain

away and the leaves and the sky and the
trees stand:
             the trees stand.  The trees,
suddenly wait against the moon’s face.

New Nuclei

Conceptualizing neurons and nuclei in an unconventional portrait.

Man as Sunflower, Sunflower as Nuclei, acrylic and ink on paper, 11" x 14"

detail, Man as Sunflower, Sunflower as Nuclei

detail, Man as Sunflower, Sunflower as Nuclei

detail, Man as Sunflower, Sunflower as Nuclei

"Unfortunately, nature seems unaware of our intellectual need for convenience and unity, and very often takes delight in complication and diversity."

- Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Sketchbook entries

A day spent in working in the sketchbook.  Below is a sampling of today's results.

Sketchbook drawing #4, graphite and ink on paper, 5" x 13"

Sketchbook drawing #5, graphite and ink on paper, 5" x 13"

Sketchbook drawing #3, graphite and ink on paper, 5" x 13"

"Like the enotmologist in search of colorful butterflies, my attention has chased in the gardens of the grey matter cells with delicate and elegant shapes, the mysterious butterflies of the soul, whose beating of wings may one day reveal to us the secrets of the mind." 

- Santiago Ramón y Cajal