MARITA DINGUS
was born in Seattle WA in 1956. She attended Tyler School of Art at
Temple University in Philadelphia (BFA, 1980) and San Jose State
University (MFA, 1985). Dingus currently lives and works in the state of
Washington. She received a Visual Art Fellowship from Artist Trust
(1994), a John S. Guggenheim Fellowship (1999), and the Morrie and Joan
Alhadeff PONCHO Artist of the Year Award (2005).
Dingus has had solo shows at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter and The Stenersen
Museum both in Norway (2002, 2006) and the Museum of Glass in Tacoma WA
(2005/6). Her work has been included in Nature/Culture organized by The
Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh (2006-8), Outwin Boochever
Portrait Competition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC
(2006/7) and 21st Century American Women Artists at the Residence of the
United States Ambassador to NATO in Brussels, Belgium (2006-10). Her
work is in many regional museums and corporate collections. Dingus has
been represented by Francine Seders Gallery since 1991. |
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ARTIST’S STATEMENT
I make mixed media sculpture out of discarded materials. The sculpture takes
the form of relics from the African Diaspora. I use discarded materials
because I see people of African descent as being used during the institution
of slavery and then discarded.
Four trips to Africa (Morocco, Nigeria, Ghana, and Egypt) have given me the
history for my art. A Guggenheim in 1999 allowed me to live in the South
where slavery and the civil rights movement took place.
Recent shows in Norway and
Belgium and residencies at the Museum of Glass and Pilchuck Glass School
have given me the opportunity to work with some new ideas and materials. The
goal of my art remains to show people’s ability not only to survive but to
prosper under dire circumstances.
Marita Dingus
February 2008 |
