Josh Dorman b. 1966
“Dorman’s work is unapologetically imagistic, even as it strips its images of significance; it is full of beauty, even as it cuts, pastes, and bullies beautiful representations into absurd, obsolete, anachronistic relations.”
Nam Le, Lost Divers catalog essay
Dorman creates extraordinary visions by excavating and agglomerating imagery from antique paper sources-- books, maps, diagrams and engravings-- and imposing into these amalgamations his own imaginary world. The interplay between the collaged images, which lie upon delicate painted areas, in turn embedded into the surface of old paper form complete compositions of continuous fascination. The skill and success of Dorman’s work is encased in the multi-layers and traces which effortlessly form both new topographic surfaces, and personal landscapes, illustrating a new, beguiling world.
Josh Dorman was born in Baltimore in 1966. He studied at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs before completing his MFA at Queen’s College, Flushing, New York. Recent solo exhibitions have included Ryan Lee, New York and Koplin Del Rio, Los Angeles, the Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles. His work is included in the collections of the Minneapolis Academy of Art Museum, The Butler Institute of American Art and The Naples Museum. He recently created seven short animations for a DVD collaboration entitled The Violin with composer Anna Clyne. His shows have been reviewed in Art Forum, ArtNews, The New York Times, Art in America, The Paris Review and Numero Cinq.
Solo Exhibitions
2015 Hypnagogia, John Martin Gallery, London
2012 The Naming of Things, John Martin Gallery, London
2012 The Missing Pages of the Sea, Koplin Del Rio, Culver City, CA
2011 Lost Divers, Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, NY
2010 George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2009 New Paintings, Mary Ryan Gallery , New York, NY
2008 George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles
Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, NY
Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2007 Morgan Lehman Gallery, Lakeville, CT
George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2005 Oxbow Gallery, Northampton, MA
Pierogi, Brooklyn, NY (also included in the Armory show ’05, ’06)
Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY
George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Cal State, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA Lost TravelsLake George Arts Project, Lake George, NY
Galerie Francoise, Baltimore, MD
2004 CUE Art Foundation, New York, NY, selected by Paul Auster
2003 55 Mercer Gallery, New York, NY
St. George’s School, Hunter Gallery, Newport, RI
2002 Quincy University Gallery, Quincy, Il. New Works on Old Paper
Doma, New York, NY
2001 55 Mercer Gallery, New York, NY
Wolf Group, New York, NY
2000 Allen Sheppard Gallery, Piermont, NY
1999 55 Mercer Gallery, New York, NY; The Daily Works: 365 MiniaturesGalerie Gora, Montreal, Quebec
1997 55 Mercer Gallery, New York, NY
1996 Galerie Francoise, Baltimore, MD. two-person show with Joan Snyder
1995 Baltimore City Hall, Baltimore, MD. two-person show with Mary Flinn
1995 Resurgam Gallery, Baltimore, MD
1995 Gallery M, Baltimore, MD
Group Exhibitions
2011 Alumni Invitiational, The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
ART ATHINA, John Martin Gallery, Greece
2011 Arte Fiera, John Martin Gallery, Bologna, Italy
2010 Cabinet, John Martin Gallery, London
ART ATHINA, John Martin Gallery, Greece
Katonah Museum of Art Mapping: Memory and Motion in Contemporary Art, Katonah, NY
2009 Christopher Henry Gallery The Map As Art, New York, NY
Under Minerva Gallery Quixotic Beast, New York, NY
2008 Hebrew Union College Museum, New York, NY
Pavel Zoubok Gallery 1968/2008: The Culture of Collage, New York, NY
Penn State University Palmer Museum
The Educational Allicance Art School , New York, NY
2007 The Drawing Center benefit auction , New York, NY
Lehman College Gallery, Bits and Pieces: The Collage Impulse, Bronx, NY
Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Skidmore College, Schick Gallery, Saratoga Springs, NY
Education
BA, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
MFA, Queens College, Flushing, NY