Verne Dawson

Born in Meridianville, Alabama in 1961, Verne Dawson is a famous figurative fantasy painter who studied at the Cooper Union School of Art in 1980 and the Art Students League of New York in 1976. Verne Dawson has referred to himself as an 'outsider artist' , yet he has been heavily involved with the New York scene for many years. While based in New York, he now divides his time between Wayne County, Pennsylvania and New York City.
Verne Dawson always wanted to be an artist but he wasn't clear on how one became one so to get some life experience he joined the Navy for a year. However he didn't get to see the world, he only saw a lot of sea and subsequently left to go to art school;

'When I got out I went to New York and attended to The Arts Students' League, which was a very academic place. Then I got a scholarship for a progressive school in New York. Hans Haacke was teaching there, a famous conceptual artist from Germany. After experimenting with other media, it was the painting that kept my attention. I thought that if I had anything personal to bring to art that would be the way'.
(Source: Interview with Verne Dawson, conducted by Eimear McKeith).

Verne Dawson's love for painting has seen him paint many still-lifes, portraits, abstracts, allegorical scenes, historical subjects, fantasy, science fiction, nudes, pets and landscapes. His work is influenced by his strong interest in astronomy, time, the zodiac, the seasons and the universe. Dawson's work is often political. He is interested in how disconnected we are with everything around us and how we forget how insignificant we are. He explores these themes through the use of myths and folklore and how they relate to contemporary life.
After graduation Dawson left for the Dordogne Valley in France and studied the prehistoric art in the caves of the area;
'We'd go into caves, most of which are closed now, to see these magnificent etchings, drawings and paintings.....It had a profound effect on me'
(source: http://atcooper.cooper.edu/pdfs/ACUw08_dawson.pdf)

This effect continues to influence his work as he strives to, through painting, to tell a story about mankind and its search for a balance between nature and technology.

Dawson's works have been shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Kunsthalle in Zurich, the Musée d’Art moderne in Paris, as well as the Royal Academy and the Camden Arts Centre in London, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and the Venice Biennale. In 2005, he was represented at the Lyon Biennale, and an exhibition of his oeuvre was held at the Consortium in Dijon in the same year.
Verne Dawson is represented by Gavin Brown's enterprise.

http://www.gavinbrown.biz/artists/view/verne-dawson

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