Dean Dass: Venus and the Moon

Les Yeux du Monde presents

Dean Dass: Venus and the Moon

9 November – 29 December 2019

Opening Reception, Saturday, 9 November, 4 – 6 p.m.

For the final exhibition of 2019, from 9 November through 29 December, LYDM is honored to present Dean Dass: Venus and the Moon. For this, his tenth solo show with the gallery, Dass will unveil his latest, mostly monumental paintings on paper and in oil. The oil on linen paintings are epic in scale at 54 x 84” each. They include romantic land and seascapes in the sublime tradition as well as new works that take their inspiration from his collages and prints of 25 years ago which were attuned to video games and film stills. Historical consciousness is always present, whether in his contemplations about what it means to paint landscape today or in his musings on the recurrence of history from Alexander the Great’s days of empire building to our own. In the past, Dass has gained inspiration from the Lapland north of Helsinki. For these, he traveled north to the wilds of Northern Michigan and Ontario, places where Canada’s famous Group of Seven artists painted over a century ago. If the sublime paintings of the past celebrated vast vistas of nature and discovery/colonization, his might focus on a bog or the forgotten riverbank monumentalized. The resulting paintings are meditative and moving, evocative scenes of the power of nature minus human interference. He writes, “Rather than suggesting discovery, my paintings aspire to a kind of quiet and resolve; the view of eternity, to paraphrase the late Mary Oliver.”¬

Professor of Printmaki¬ng at UVa since 1985, Dass is also well known for his innovative use of printmaking techniques, both ancient and current, and works that blur the boundaries amon¬g mediums. His latest large scale works on paper mounted on panel made with pigments, gold leaf, kaolin and more are unique in his inclusion of pink pigments inspired by prehistoric rock formations encountered on his Canadian sojourns. These pieces are microcosmically attuned to Chub fish in a river spurning golden new worlds or macrocosmically focused on the extraterrestrial—the moon and stars, figures in space.

Dean Dass’s works have been included in numerous museum exhibitions in Poland, Brazil, England, Finland, the Netherlands, Egypt, as well as in many university and private galleries here and abroad. He has been acknowledged in countless publications and through many fellowships and awards over the years. He has been a guiding light to his students at the University of Virginia and to the Printmakers Left, a collaborative art making group of colleagues hailing from the east and west coast and many states in between, with 4 books now to its name.

There will be an opening reception on Friday, November 9 from 4 – 6 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. Please check LYDM.co or email the gallery at LYDMGallery@gmail.com for more information.

This exhibition is supported in part by UVA Arts & the Office of the Provost & the Vice-Provost for the Arts.