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Artist Statement:
I am one amongst a generation of artists after modernism who has
given consideration to the ways certain cultural narratives over time
become naturalized. In the wake of modernism’s ossification into a
series of predictably scandalous scripts, many artists looked to the
“dead” or more traditional media to see what sorts of critical
possibilities might be realized. With the depiction of landscape
playing such a central role in the history of North American art, it
seemed to offer many of the critical possibilities I was looking for,
and it felt more and more like something I have always known.
But how have I known it?
During the last 15 years, I have produced a body of work that
tries to raise questions about the representation of nature from a
variety of institutional points of view. The series began with an
allegorical prairie grass museum that was housed in an abandoned 19th
century fire station on the west side of Chicago. Soon after, I
produced an illustrated Martian travel guide, an architectural
bestiary and an illustrated lunar calendar. After relocating in
Pennsylvania, I continued with a deer-hunting labyrinth (based on the
myth of the Minotaur, slayed by Theseus), a cow chapel -
collaboratively with Scottish landscape architect Rolf Roscher and, as
always, landscape paintings.
The paintings portray the kind of suburban, quotidian spaces in
drastic states of transformation that increasingly define the
character of North America. By employing the ancient craft (and/or
technique) of tempera painting, a medium long associated with the
depiction of the sacred; these prosaic spaces are rendered as social
and historical ruins. By setting these depictions into a form of
mythic space, a dialogue is initiated that sheds light on contemporary
experience through an engagement with the history of painting. A kind
of tension is created through these paradoxes that seek to pose
questions about the nature of the sacred, the prosaic, the beautiful. |
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RESUME |
Education: |
1988 |
M.F.A., Painting and
Drawing, The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
1985 |
BFA, Painting and Drawing,
University of Colorado, Boulder, CO |
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Awards: |
2013 |
Studio Art Centers
International (SACI) Consortium Residency, San Giovanni Valdarno,
Italy |
2003 |
Pollock-Krasner Foundation
Award
Arts Council of Ireland, publications grant for New Potatoes, a
collaborative book of photos with Helen O’Leary. Published by
Coracle Press. |
2002 |
Arts Council
of Ireland Grant Award for the production of Silage, a collaborative
artist's book
Penn State College of Arts and Architecture Faculty Research Grant,
University Park, PA |
2001 |
Institute
for the Arts and Humanistic Studies Grant, University Park, PA
Jim and Connie Houser Award, The Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach,
FL
Penn State College of Arts and Architecture Faculty Research Grant,
University Park, PA |
2000 |
The Tyrone
Guthrie Center Award, Annaghmakerrig, Ireland
Penn State College of Arts and Architecture Faculty Research Grant,
University Park, PA |
1999 |
Heinrich
Boll Foundation Award, Achill Island, Ireland |
1997 |
The
Ballinglen Foundation Award, Ballycastle, County Mayo, Ireland |
1991 |
CAAP Grant,
Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago, IL |
1985
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Maria Elkin
Memorial Prize, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO |
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Exhibitions: |
2015 |
Art from Excess, Marshall J.
Gardner Center for the Arts, Gary, IN |
2014 |
Summer Group Show, Zg Gallery,
Chicago, IL |
2012 |
New Paintings, Zg Gallery,
Chicago, IL
10th Anniversary Show, Zg Gallery,
Chicago, IL
Studio Practice: Recent Work by SoVA
Faculty, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park, PA |
2011 |
The Civility Show, Amelie Wallace
Gallery, SUNY, Old Westbury, NY |
2009 |
Beacon, The Ballina Arts Centre,
Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland |
2008 |
Fantastical Imaginings, Delaware
Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE; (traveling, 2008-09)
Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD (Catalog) |
2007 |
Group, Zg Gallery, Chicago Bridge
Art Fair, Miami, FL |
2006 |
Reclamation, Zg Gallery, Chicago,
IL (four-person show)
CLUSTER, Participant Inc., NY, NY (traveling, 2006); Espacio El Particular, Mexico City; FOUR,
Dublin, Ireland
Art Chicago, Zg Gallery, Chicago,
IL
Summer Show, Zg Gallery, Chicago,
IL |
2005 |
New Images from North Mayo,
Courthouse Gallery, The Ballinglen Arts Foundation Ballycastle,
Ireland |
2004 |
Trunk Show, The King
House, Boyle, Co. Roscommon, Ireland. Traveled to London Metropolitan
University Gallery, Whitechapel |
2003 |
Ballinglen Fellows Exhibition, Community
Arts Center, Wallingford, PA
Zg Gallery "Paul Chidester, Selected Works," Chicago, IL |
2002 |
Zg
Gallery, “12 x 12”, Chicago, IL
Spazio Arte, “La Citta' Ideale”,
Perugia, Italy
Leitrim Design House Gallery,
Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland
Temple Bar Gallery and Studios,
“CLUSTER, Studio 6,” Dublin, Ireland
Conversationspace, Claremorris Open
Exhibition, Claremorris, Ireland
Ballinglen Foundation Courthouse
Gallery, “Colours,” Ballycastle, Ireland
Zg Gallery, “An Amuse-Bouche”,
Chicago, IL |
2001 |
Scott Pfaffman Gallery, “Paul Chidester,
Recent Works,” New York, NY
MPI Media, “take heART,” New York, NY
Island Arts Centre, “Visual Leitrim,” Lisburn,
Northern Ireland
Artists Image Resource, “Photographs
by Artists Made for a Variety of Purposes,” Pittsburgh, PA
Society of the Four Arts, “63rd Annual Nat’l Exhibition of
Contemporary American Paintings,” Palm Beach, FL |
2000 |
Linenhall Arts Center, “On Painting and
Fighting, Look Aloof,” Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland
Gallery Arka,, Lithuania & Gallery
5020, Salzburg, Austria, “2nd International Artist's Book Triennial
Vilnius”
Palmer Art Museum, “sva2000,”
University Park, PA
Rosenthal Gallery, “Current Work
2000”, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC
Abercrombie Gallery, “Works on Paper,” McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA
Baton Rouge Gallery, “Works on Paper,”
Baton Rouge, LA
Period Gallery, “Contemporary 2000”,
Omaha, NE
Zoller Gallery, “Trunk Show,”
University Park, PA |
1999 |
Sheetz Gallery, “Paul Chidester, Recent
Work, Penn State,” Altoona, PA
Rose Lehrman, Arts Center Gallery,
“Landscape Paintings: Two Visions,” Harrisburg, PA
The Painting Center, “Figuratively
Speaking,” New York, NY
The Bowman and Penelec Galleries, “8
Hour Drawings,” Allegheny College, Meadville, PA
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1998 |
d'Art Center, “8th Annual Mid-Atlantic Art
Exhibition”, Norfolk, VA |
1997 |
Royal
Hibernian Academy of Arts, “Landscape & Recollection: The Ballinglen
Experience,” Dublin, Ireland |
1995 |
Hunter
College, “Beyond Circumstance,” New York, NY |
1994 |
Zolla-Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL
N.A.M.E. Gallery, Chicago, IL
Zoller Gallery, Penn State, University
Park, PA
Erie Art Museum “Elastic Visions,” Erie,
PA |
1993 |
Futura Book Collection, Nice, France.
Curated by Florence Bonnefous
Owen Patrick Gallery, “Penn State
Faculty Exhibition,” Philadelphia, PA
Randolph St. Gallery, “Artlantic
City,” Chicago, IL
John Post Lee Gallery, “Paul Chidester, Irene Hardwicke, Joe Smith, Janet Samuel,” New York,
NY
Zolla-Lieberman Gallery, “Views of
Vegetables,” Chicago, IL |
1992 |
N.A.M.E. Gallery, Chicago, IL |
1991 |
Chicago
Cultural Center, “CORN,” Chicago, IL
Randy Alexander, New York, NY
Centro Colombo Americano de Medellin
“An Exchange of Concepts on the American Landscape,” traveling, 1992
Camara de Comercio de Cali Camara de
Comercio de Bucaramanga, Museum of Modern Art of Cartegna
VIAFARINI, “Immagini Proittate,”
Milan, Italy
Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, “conTEXTual,”
Chicago, IL
MWMWM Gallery, “Trees”, Chicago, IL
N.A.M.E. Gallery, Chicago, IL
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1990 |
Rezac Gallery, “Thresholds, Tracts and
Thinwhinels,” Chicago, IL
N.A.M.E. Gallery, “Vital Signs,”
Chicago, IL |
1989 |
Ten in One
Gallery, “Direct Object,” Chicago, IL
N.A.M.E. Gallery, “Anatomy Theater,”
Chicago, IL
Northeastern University, “Small Sun
drops, Water Horehound, Sneezeweed,” Chicago, IL
The Nature Conservancy, A temporary
installation |
1985 |
CORE
Gallery, “Young Denver Painters,” Denver, CO
CORE Gallery, “Patterns”, Denver, CO |
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Published Works: |
2005 |
New Potatoes,
Collaborative book of photographs with Helen O’Leary, published by
Coracle Press, Ireland |
2002 |
Silage,
Artist's Book w/ Helen O'Leary, published: Mermaid Turbulence, Annaghmaconway, Cloone, Co.
Leitrim, Ireland
The Salvation-Dexterity Method for Art
Instruction, collaborative artist's book with Charles Cave |
2000 |
A Primer for
the 21st Century, collaborative artist's book with Charles Cave.
Exhibited at Printed Matter, NY, NY |
1995 |
7
Wildflowers of the 17th Century English Landscape, Mudlick Eds., Exhibited at Printed Matter, New York, NY |
1991 |
Lunar Calendar, Mudlick Editions,
Exhibited at Printed Matter, New York, NY
MARS, a travel journal. Mudlick Editions.
Printed in India. Exhibited
at Printed Matter, New York, NY |
1990 |
WHITEWALLS,
A Journal of Artist's Writings, "The Jay Pee Chaff Museum of Prairie
Grasses,” #21 |
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Bibliography: |
ARTFORUM, Laurie Palmer, review,
April 1991
Centre Daily Times, Joshua Jordan,
Feb. 4, 1999; Barbara Bruggebors, Feb. 3, 1999
Chicago Tribune, David McCracken,
July12, 1991
Crain's Chicago Business, Editor's
Choice Review, Feb. 11-17, 1991
The Daily Break, June 11, 1998
The Irish Times, Brian Fallon,
November 25, 1997
New American Paintings, Open Studio
Press, Number 33, May 2001
New Art Examiner, Michael Bulka,
review, April 1990
Pittsburgh Post Gazette Magazine,
Ellen Wilson, Oct. 1, 2001; Mary Thomas, Feb. 6, 1999
The Virginian Pilot, Theresa Annas,
1998
WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio, Victoria
Lautman, review, 1989 |
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