Lesley Dill
| Lesley Dill | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1950 (age 66–67) Bronxville, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Maryland Institute College of Art, Smith College, Trinity College |
| Known for | Sculpture, Performance, Printmaking, Drawing, Photography |
Lesley Dill (born 1950) is an American contemporary artist. Her work has addressed the power of language as it relates to the psyche. Dill currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Dill was born in 1950 to high school teachers in New York, but raised in Maine.
Dill received a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1972 from Trinity College and went on to receive a Master of Arts in Teaching from Smith College in 1974. After a period of teaching in public and private schools, Dill went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1980.
Dill's style explores the relationships between language, body, emotion and society. Dill has described language as being, "...the touchstone, the pivot point of all my work." Her work crosses traditional boundaries between artistic disciplines and includes printmaking, drawing, sculpture, photography and performance art, often used in tandem with one another.
In addition to her sculpture and works on paper, Dill is also known for her performance work and public projects. In 2000, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem presented Lesley Dill, Tongues on Fire: Visions and Ecstasy, the artist’s first community-based project which included a performance done in collaboration with the Emmanuel Baptist Church Spiritual Choir.
In 2003, Dill’s performance project I Heard a Voice done in collaboration with Tom Morgan and the Ars Nova Singers was presented at the Evergreen Cultural Centre (Vancouver). It included the world premier of the performance piece I Dismantle.
In 2008, Dill conceived and directed a full-scale opera, “Divide Light,” based on the language of Emily Dickinson. The opera premiered in August 2008 at the Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, CA. The opera was commissioned by Montalvo Arts Center and was supported in part by grants from the Rockefeller Foundation Multi Arts Production Fund, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. A film of the opera, “Divide Light,” premiered in New York City at the Anthology Film Archives in April 2009. The music for “Divide Light” was done in collaboration with composer Richard Marriott.
In 2012, Dill began collaborating with Pamela Ordoñez on Drunk with the Starry Void, a multimedia musical performance. It premiered in the summer of 2015 at the McNay Museum in San Antonio.
Her work has been widely exhibited and the subject of numerous solo shows across the United States at both commercial galleries as well as museums such as the Neuberger Museum of Art (Purchase, NY), Mississippi Museum of Art (Jackson, MS), Queens Museum of Art and the Dorsky Museum (SUNY New Paltz, New Paltz, NY). Her work can be found in the collections of the Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Brooklyn Museum; Cleveland Museum of Art; High Museum (Atlanta, GA); Kemper Museum, Kansas City; Metropolitan Museum of Art; MoMA; Whitney Museum of American Art; and Yale University Art Gallery, among many others.
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