User:Rachelmward/sandbox

Dianne Blell is an artist currently based in New York City and Bridgehampton, NY. She is a fine art and wildlife photographer, most well known for large format 4x5 photographic images that reconstruct reality through art historical references, large-scale painted sets and digital photo manipulation. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1989 to complete Circus Animals Desertion (1989), a pre-Photoshop technology project, and Wildlives (1991) representing her foray into African wildlife photography. She has shown her work in the prestigious Leo Castelli gallery and is currently represented by Holden Luntz. Her fine art work has appeared in numerous and publications, including Time Magazine, National Geographic and Interview Magazine.

Circus Animals Desertion (Guggenheim, 1989)
Dianne received the Guggenheim Fellowship for Photography in 1989 to complete two series: Circus Animals Desertion (1989) and Wildlives (1991). The concept for Circus Animals Desertion (1989) involved symbolic-mythological narrative compositions through the use of digital imaging technology before the era of Photoshop:

''My ambition was to incorporate the inherent reality of the photographic image with my drawings, painting and appropriated imagery. I also wished to instill a textural appearance to the photograph to set up a perceptual confusion to the surface. I was driven by the lingering debate regarding the artists’ hand in photography (the public valuation of an oil painting versus a photograph). At the time, there was an expressed rejection of photography, particularly by the painting cognoscente because of its lack of a painterly texture on the grounds that it lacked a sensual surface. In response, I designed sets and innovated methods to lend the physical impression of paintings in order to instill a perceptual illusion on the surface of the final prints by employing a “painterly” concept of creating environments to seduce the audience. This was important to me because, at that time, photography was the stepchild of the art world. In other words, I wanted to re-create photography as “fine” art.

''When I applied for the Guggenheim, new photographic technologies were evolving. This provided me with a timely opportunity to push the envelope in terms of the substance and conceptual meaning of photography. I also strongly desired to illustrate that reality, painting and drawing can exist and interact on the same dynamic plane, creating a symbolic narrative that was neither real nor unreal. I strove to integrate memory, art history, mythology and religion, capturing their essence in a simultaneity of time and space. A youthful model would represent the eyes of a younger self-surrogate and a quandary of experiences of a life fully-lived — my own — that lay ahead of her. As I wrote in my original artist statement, “paradoxically, it took a certain maturity to allow this to happen, to allow the innocence to freely express itself.”''

— Dianne Blell, 2019

Education
2005  Pratt Institute, NYC, Advanced Photoshop 2004  International Center for Photography, Photoshop 1 & II 1982   Parsons School of Design, 35mm Fashion Photography,4x5 Large Format & Studio Photography 1981  International Center for Photography, 35 mm B/W Photography, Darkroom 1973  BFA, MFA, San Francisco Art Institute 1963  University of San Diego, A.A. 1962   La Jolla Art Center, Drawing

Grants & Awards
2003  Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, NY 2003   New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, New York, NY 1989   National Endowment for the Arts/Arts Fellowship 1989-90  John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Photography 1988  Working Collaboration Grant, Applied Graphics Technologies, New York, NY 1988   Art Matters, Inc/Project Grant 1980  National Endowment for the Arts/Arts Fellowship 1973  Scholarship, San Francisco Art Institute MFA Program

Selected Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions 2008  Desire for the Intimate Deity, Charles Cowles Gallery, New York. NY 2008  Desire for the Intimate Deity, “February Is Love,” Holden Luntz Gallery, Palm Beach, Fla. 1991   Wild Lives, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, NY 1990   Circus Animals Desertion, Dart Gallery, Chicago, IL 1989   Circus Animals Desertion, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, NY 1989   Players and Painted Stage, University of Illinois, Krannert Art Museum, Champaign-Urbana, IL 1988   Dianne Blell Photographs, Gallery 454 North, Los Angeles, Calif. 1986   Modern Romance, Elvehjem Museum of Art, Madison, WI 1985   Pursuit of Love, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, NY 1984   Dianne Blell, Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX 1983   Various Fabulous Monsters, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, NY 1983   Dianne Blell, C.E.P.A., Buffalo, NY 1980   Love/Hate,  Illustrating Tri-Quarterly 47; Love/Hate, published by Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, Cover & Interior Photographic Performance/Installations, Los Angeles Institute for Contemporary Art (LAICA), Los Angeles, Calif., Charmed Heads and Urban Cupids, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, Calif. 1979  Charmed Heads and Urban Cupids, Robert Stefanotti Gallery, New York, NY 1978   Portrait of a Lady, Matrix Program, University Art Museum, Berkeley, CA 1977   Oasis for a Gallery, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1976   Odalisque, Outdoor Billboard Installation & Video, Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco, CA 1975   Surrealism and the Blues, Curated by Tom Marioni, The Annual, San Francisco, CA

Group Exhibitions 2017  Five and Forward:The Permanent Collection, Parrish Museum, Watermill, NY 2015   Director's Favorites:  1999-2015, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT 2015    The Compassionate Eye: Women Behind the Lens, Holden Luntz Gallery, Palm Beach, FL 2013    Rediscover/Reinvent: Photographers Redefining Reality, Holden Luntz Gallery, Palm Beach, FL 2012    In Focus:Recent Acquisitions in Photography, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT 2012    Seating Arrangements, IlleArts, Amagansett, NY 2011   The Garden, Allen Nederpelt, Brooklyn, NY 2011   Return to Arcadia, Holden Luntz Gallery, Palm Beach, FL 2010   Plank Road, Salomon Contemporary, New York City, NY 2010   Hunt & Chase, Curated with Beth Rudin DeWoody, Salomon Contemporary, East Hampton, NY 2009   The Big Show 4, Silas Marder Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY 2009   Myth, Magic & Mystery, Holden Luntz Gallery, Palm Beach, FL 2008   How to Cook a Wolf, Dinter Fine Art, New York City, NY 2008   Modern Photographs: The Machine, The Body, The City, Parrish Art Museum, Southhampton, NY 2008   Palm Beach International Fine Art & Antiques Show, Holden Luntz Gallery, West Palm Beach, FL 2006   SCOPE HAMPTONS, Dinter Fine Art, New York City, NY 2005   Charmed, Curated by Michael St. John and Jason Duval, Lower East Side Girls Club Art & Community Gallery, New York, NY 2002  Rapture, Curated by Chris Townsend, Barbican Gallery, London, England 1996  Telling Stories, Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL 1995   Kissing, traveling exhibition, G. Ray Hawkins Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 1994   Group Show, G. Ray Hawkins Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 1991   Regarding the Figure, Philippe Daverio Gallery, New York, NY 1990   Seductive Deceptions: The Theatrical Image, University Gallery, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 1990   Siggraph, Traveling Exhibition, Originating at California State University, Los Angeles, CA 1989   Photography of Invention, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC 1989   Photography of Invention, Museum of Contemporary Art,  Chicago, IL 1989   Photography of Invention, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN 1989,  Out of Bounds: Contemporary Long Island Photographers, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY 1989  Don’t Bungle the Jungle!,Toni Shafrazi Gallery, New York, NY 1987   Symbolic Narrative, Beaver College Gallery, Spruance Art Center, Glenside, PA 1987   Leo Castelli and His Artists: 30 Years of Promoting Contemporary Art, Centro Cultural Arte Contemporanea,  Mexico City 1987  A Visible Order: An Exhibition of Contemporary Still Life Photography, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL 1987  The Spiral of Artificiality, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY 1987   Leo Castelli and Castelli Graphics at Gabrielle Breyers, Gabrielle Breyers Gallery, New York, NY 1987  Three Decades of Exploration: Hommage to Leo Castelli, Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL 1986   Signs of the Real, White Columns, New York, NY 1986   Before the Camera, Burden Gallery, Aperture Foundation, New York, NY 1986   Photographic Fictions, Whitney Museum of American Art, Fairfield County, NY 1986   Olympus Revisited, Summit Art Center, Summit, NJ 1985   Messages From 1985, Light Gallery, New York, NY 1985   Picture Frame Frame Picture, Gabrielle Breyers, New York, NY 1984   Bomb Magazine, Blum-Helman Warehouse, New York, NY 1983   Artists’ Photographs, Crown Point Press, Oakland, CA 1983   Reallegory, Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA 1983   Group Show, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, NY 1983   Invention and Allegory, Daniel Wolf, Inc., New York, NY 1980   Group Show, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA 1979   Space/Time/Sound-A Decade in the Bay Area-1970’s, (Video), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,San Francisco, Calif. 1979   Group Show, Robert Stefannoti Gallery, New York, NY 1978   Group Show, Lawson De Celle, San Francisco, CA 1978   Oh You Punk! Love Didi, Photographic Performance Installation Page, Slash, Los Angeles, Calif., February 1978, Vol. 1 No. 8, p. 2 1975  Bay Area Artists, Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, CA 1973   Drawing Invitational, Emmanuel Walter Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA

Video Work & Installations 2013   Bohemian Nights 4: The Secret Lives of Artists, "Surrealism & the Blues, Revisited," Dinter Fine Arts at The IMC  LAB + GALLERY, NYC 2012   Bohemian Nights 3:Beat Attitudes “Surrealism & The Blues….Revisited,”  Presented by Dinter Fine Artsat The Emerald Tablet, San Francisco, CA 2008   Surrealism & The Blues….Revisited, Dinter Fine Art, Online “Project Room" 1980    Blell, Dianne. TriQuarterly 47; Love/Hate, Covers & Interior Photographic Performances illustrating Stories’ Protagonists: Milady, Electra & Djaa, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, Winter 1978    Blell, Dianne. Oh You Punk! Love DiDi, Photographic Performance Page Installation, Curated by Marilyn Karp, Slash, Los Angeles, Calif., February, Vol.1, No.8, p.2 1977   A Tight 13 Minutes, "Nature Morte Avec Jazz et Cigarette," CARP, Video, Los Angeles, CA 1976   A Tight 13 Minutes, "Nature Morte Avec Jazz et Cigarette," Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco, CA 1976   Odalisque,  Outdoor Billboard Installation in Northbeach, San Francisco and Video of Creation Process shown at the Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco, CA

Selected Collections
Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI Lannan Foundation, Sante Fe, NM Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Museum at Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY New Britain Museum of Art, New Britain, CT Parrish Museum, Watermill, NY University Art Museum, Berkeley, CA Judith Auchincloss, New York, NY Charles Cowles, New York, NY Phillipe Daverio, New York City, NY Eric Fischl, New York City, NY Dorie Friedenrich Fine Art Ltd, California Alanna Heiss & Fred Sherman, New York, NY Austin Hills, San Francisco, CA Alan Jones, London, England Lana Jokel, New York, NY William Judson, Judson realty, New York, NY Aron Katz, Boulder, CO Karl Lagerfeld, Paris, France Jenny & Trey Laird, New York, NY Holden & Jody Luntz, West Palm Beach, FL Eve Mannes, Atlanta, GA Tommy Morrison, Palm Beach, FL Alexandra Marshall, Millbrook, NY Theresa Rebeck, New York City, NY Ed Ruscha, Venice, CA Robert & Jane Rosenblum, New York, NY Sonnier, Keith, Bridgehampton, NY Daniel Varenne, Geneva, Switzerland William Wegman, New York, NY Lawrence Weiner, New York, NY Donald & Virginia Zilkha, New York City, NY