Verne Dawson
Verne Dawson (b. 1955, Meridianville, Alabama) delves into heady topics concerning culture and nature, interlacing the present with the ancient past. His works cite a history of stories, symbols, and belief systems. Dawson’s work maintains a focus on timekeeping and the structures that have governed human lives. He depicts chimeric landscapes and cosmological scenes with a style that oscillates between Bosch and faux-naïf. Dawson’s formidable subjects are depicted with verdant, loose brushstrokes. By blending portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and abstraction, Dawson merges science and fantasy to create timeless images that convey the history of the relationship between humanity and the natural world. Dawson studied at The Cooper Union School of Art, New York, and the Art Student’s League of New York.
Recent solo exhibitions include Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich (2023); Karma, New York (2022); Gavin Brown’s Enterprise (2019, 2017); Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2016); Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich (2016); and Victoria Miro, London (2013). Dawson’s work was included in the Yokohama Triennial (2011), the Whitney Biennial (2010), the Lyon Biennial (2006), and the Venice Biennial (2003).
Courtesy the artist. Photo by the artist.
Born 1955, Meridianville, Alabama
Lives and works in New York
EDUCATION
1980
The Cooper Union School of Art, New York
1978
Art Student’s League of New York
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023
Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich, Switzerland, Verne Dawson: Fête Galante
2022
Karma, New York, Autochthones
2019
Gavin Brown’s enterprise, 439 W 127th Street, New York, The Theft of Fire, Expulsion & Mudslide
Galerie Eva Presenhuber, New York, Paintings
2017
Gavin Brown’s enterprise, 291 Grand St, New York, Tinnitus
2016
TM-Galleria, Helsinki, Horizon
The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin
2015
Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, Mermaid Money
2013
Galleria Il Capricorno, Venice
Victoria Miro, London, Apalachicola to Zirconia
2011
Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich
2009
Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York
2008
Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, The Paradise
2007
Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich, Paintings
2006
Le Consortium, Dijon, France
Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Victoria Miro Gallery, London
2004
Camden Art Center, London
Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York, The Days of the Week and other paintings
Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin
2003
Victoria Miro Gallery, London, Wheel of Fortune
Galerie Hauser & Wirth & Presenhuber, Zurich, Aerialists
2002
Kunsthalle Zurich
2001
Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York
2000
Monica de Cardenas, Milan
1999
Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York
1997
Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York
1995
Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York
1989
Viafora Gallery, New York
1985
The Portrait Studio, New York
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
70 Main Street, Thomaston, Maine, A Particular Kind of Heaven
Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica in collaboration with Aïshti Foundation, Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Day for Night: New American Realism, curated by Massimiliano Gioni and Flaminia Gennari Santori
2023
Fondation Carmignac, Porquerolles Island, France, The Inner Island
The Hill Art Foundation, New York, Beautiful, Vivid, Self-contained, curated by David Salle
White Columns, New York, Looking Back / The 13th White Columns Annual, selected by Olivia Shao
2022
Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich, Switzerland, Earthing
Consortium Museum, Dijon, France, The Drawing Centre Show
2020
Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, All in one
Karma, New York, (Nothing but) Flowers
2019
MoMA PS1, New York, Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991–2011
Gavin Brown enterprise, New York, Just What is it That Makes Today So Different, So Appealing?
Peter Freeman, New York, Downtown Painting, curated by Alex Katz
2018
Hadrien de Montferrand Gallery, Beijing, New York By Night, curated by Spencer Sweeney
2017
New York, Ugo Rondinone: I love John Giorno
Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, Get Outta That Spaceship and Fight Like a Man
2016
Karma, Amagansett, New York, Outside, curated by Matthew Higgs
2015
Victoria Miro, London, Forces in Nature
Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, Works on Paper
Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Ugo Rondinone: I <3 John Giorno
2014
MART Museum, Rovereto, Italy, Paessaggio mon amour
Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Torino, Italy, curated by Neville Wakefield
2013
Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Paisaje 1969 – 2013
2012
Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, Painting Now
Le Consortium, Dijon, Le Monde Comme Volonté et Comme Papier Peint
Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland, Art Unlimited
2011
Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama, Japan, Our Magic Hour
2010
Victoria Miro Gallery, London, In The Company of Alice
Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, At Home/Not at Home
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2010: Whitney Biennial, curated by Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari
Galerie Praz Delavallada, Paris, Order to See
2009
The Burger Collection, Berlin, Conflicting Tales: Subjectivity (Quadrilogy, Part 1)
Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris, We are sun-kissed and snow-blind, with Galerie Eva Presenhuber
Gresham’s Ghost, New York, Cave Painting: Installment #1, curated by Bob Nickas and Ajay Kurian
Benson Keyes Arts, Southampton, New York, Hello, Mrs. MacGruder, curated by Michele Maccarone
PSM Gallery, Berlin, Cave Painting, curated by Bob Nickas
Gallery Hyundai/doArt, Beijing
2008
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, New York, Future Tense: Reshaping the Landscape
Gallery Hyundai/doART, Seoul
Gallery Hyundai/doArt, Beijing
Murcia, Spain, ESTRATOS Art Festival
2007
Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv,XXS (Extra Extra Small)
Palais de Tokyo, Paris, The Third Mind, curated by Ugo Rondinone
de Pury & Luxembourg, Painting as Fact – Fact as Fiction, curated by Bob Nickas
House Eva Presenhuber, Vnà, Switzerland, Jubilee Exhibition
Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea di Monfalcone, Italy, Painting Codes
2006
Deste Foundation, Athens, Panic Room
2005
Gallery 400, University of Illionois, Chicago, Interested Painting
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Down by Law
Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Translation
Lyon Biennale, Lyon, France, Experience de la Durée
2004
Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Huts
2003
Grimm Rosenfeld, Munich, Game Over
Venice Biennial, Venice, Utopia Station
Hauser & Wirth & Presenhuber Galerie, Zurich, Breathing Under Water
The Approach, London, Dirty Pictures
Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York, 20th Anniversary- Welcome home
2002
Jousse Entreprise, Paris, Five Years
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, From the Observatory, curated by Bob Nickas
Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Urgent Painting
2001
The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Conneticut, Best of the Season
Victoria Miro Gallery, London, Works on Paper from Acconci to Zittel
Monica de Cardenas, Milan, Extended Painting
Victoria Miro Gallery, London
Elizabeth Cherry Fine Arts, Tucson, Arizona, How is Everything? Everything’s going to be…Alright, curated by Bob Nickas
2000
Invisible Museum, Memphis, Tennessee, Ghosts
Bellweather, Brooklyn, Cosmobiology
Le Consortium, Dijon, There is no Spirit in Painting
Sandra Gering Gallery, New York, Collected (in Mind), curated by Bob Nickas
1999
Lawrence Rubin Greenberg Van Doren Fine Art, New York, Another Country
AC Project Room, New York, Titles for Drawings
1998
Bronwyn Keenan Gallery, New York, Pets
1997
Bronwyn Keenan Gallery, New York, Landscape USA
1996
Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York
AC Project Room, New York
1993
Fesek Municipal Art Gallery of the Artists’ Union of Budapest, Budapest, Little Things
New York, Art in General
Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago
Delta Axis Center, Memphis, Tennessee
1990
Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York
White Columns, New York
Viafora Gallery, New York
1987
Ridge Street Gallery, New York
1986
Ridge Street Gallery, New York
1985
The Portrait Studio, New York
1984
Sharpe Gallery, New York
King Street Gallery, New York
1983
Olson Gallery, New York
1982
Olson Gallery, New York
1981
The Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina
Greenville Art Museum, Greenville, South Carolina
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2019
Hutchinson, John. Verne Dawson
Lund Humphries, New York
144 pages
11 x 9 ½ inches
Bradway, Todd. Landscape Painting Now: From Pop Abstraction to New Romanticism
D.A.P., New York
368 pages
11 x 10 1/4 inches
2017
Higgs, Matthew and Dawson, Verne. Bill Lynch
Ridinghouse, London
160 pages
11 1/2 × 9 ½ inches
2012
Dawson, Verne. Verne Dawson – Precision of the Equinoxes: Paintings 1994-2010
Les Presse du Reel, Paris
272 pages
8 × 10 1/3 inches
2009
Graw, Isabelle, et al. The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection: Catalogue Raisonné
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
296 pages
9 ½ × 11 ½ inches
2007
Alizard, Mark and Grossi, Frédéric. The Third Mind. Carte Blanche à Ugo Rondinone
Les Presse du Reel, Paris
308 pages
9 7/8 × 12 1/4 inches
2002
Schwabsky, Barry. Vitamin P-New Perspectives in Painting
Phaidon Press, London
352 pages
10 × 11 1/3 inches
