Back to Summer Show 2005
|
Back to Summer Show 2005 |
 Dirk Westphal
) Dascyllus Aruanus (3 stripe humbug) ) Neoglyphidodon oxydodon 14 x 11 inches ) Parasema Dascyllus 14 x 11 inches |
As an artist living and working in Manhattan, it comes as no surprise that Westphal's work is varied and has many influences,
much in the same way that an urban environment is in a constant process of renewal and decay. His work has evolved from a
series of projects where entertainment and survivalist techniques collided, including lawless gladiator brawls and photo essays
featuring the artist posed with wrecked cars, into two distinct bodies of work. One body of work investigates the mechanisms underlying our consumer culture. Preservative-laden, prepackaged desserts, including Ding-Dongs, Ho-Hos, Ring-Dings, etc., are sculpted into cultural symbols and corporate logos. In another series, mouthwashes, cough syrups, dish soaps, and cleansers are photographed in such a way as to accentuate their ultra saturated, hyper-artificial colors, and are then displayed on large lightboxes. These series explore the meeting point of the psychological, scientific, and aesthetic aspects of American consumer culture. Westphal's current work involves the collection, cataloguing, and ultimate re-presentation of ornamental fish. While he originally worked exclusively with fish from New York City's Chinatown (bred, perversely and exclusively, for human enjoyment), the artist has branched out into photographing saltwater fish as well. These fish are photographed in custom built tanks, isolated, monumentalized, and shown as lightboxes or photos fused to plexiglass. Color, beauty and craft are paramount to this investigation. The artist's professional goals are a continuing distribution of his work and an ongoing dialogue with all things relevant to a working artist. DIRK WESTPHAL RESUME Lives and Works in New York City 211 Centre Street, New York, NY 10013 dirkwest@earthlink.net www.dirkwestphal.com Selected Exhibitions 2005 Dirk Westphal, Time Olsen Gallery, Sydney, Australia Pulp, Lonsdale Gallery, ONT Call of the Wild, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA 2004 New Arrival, Terminal 5, John F. Kennedy Airport, Queens, NY Piscoli Fabulosi, Mixed Greens, New York, NY Pisciculi Speciosi, Arts Club Of Washington, D.C. 2003 Petropolis, New York Historical Society , New York, NY Nature Photography, Jay Grimm Gallery, New York, NY Portraits of Fortune, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney, Australia 2002 Dirk Westphal, Dance Theater Workshop, New York, NY Collaborations, The National Arts Club, New York, NY Carassius Aurautus, Harley Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO 2001 Wet, Luise Ross Gallery, New York, NY Material Whirled, Art in General, New York, NYC 2000 Collector's Choice, Exit Art/The First World , New York, NY Urban Being, The Limelight, New York, NY 1999 New York Gladiator's; Live Combat Performance, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Queens, NY New York Gladiator's; Shelly Mars vs. Hope Clark Performance in Box Opera, Angel Orensanz Foundation, New York, NY Photosynthesis, Rare, New York, NY Site, in collaboration with Tom Sachs, Sante Fe, NM Paradise 8, Exit Art/The First World, New York, NY 1998 Oydessey, Green Naftali, New York, NY Collections Metropolitan Museum of Art Fashion Institute, New York, NY National Arts Club, New York, NY SEI Investments, Philadelphia, PA Pfizer, New York, NY Corel, Toronto, ONT Progressive, Cleveland, OH Rockefeller University, New York, NY Columbia University Earth Institute, New York, NY Time & Life Pictures, New York, NY Getty Images, New York, NY The New York Times Photo Archives, New York, NY Selected Press Hastie, Amelie. "New York Shelf Life: Dirk Westphal's Acts of Preservation," Journal of Visual Culture, Spring 2005. Valdez, Sarah. "Piscoli Fabulosi," Art In America, March 2001. Robbins, Sarah. "Dirk Westphal, Artist," Gothamist.com interview, August 2004. Park, Sean. "World Artist," Art Price, September 2004. Reed, John. "Dirk Westphal," Artforum.com New York Critics' Picks, July 2004. Szabo, Julia. "Art A-fish-ionado," The New York Post, July 25, 2004. Dawson, Jessica. "Mr. Westphal's Fish Shtick," The Washington Post, February 2004. Cohen, David. "Nature Photography," The New York Sun, July 2003. Grady, Turner. "Dirk Westphal at N.Y. Security Mini-Storage," Art in America, October, 1997. Education 1989 M.F.A., California Institute Of The Arts, Valencia, CA 1986 B.A., in English, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH |
Read Press:) ) ) ) ) )
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Copyright 2005 The Salt Queen Foundation All Rights Reserved |
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}