Artist: Jane Dickson
Exhibition title: Lucky Food
Venue: Stems Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Date: March 12 – April 11, 2020
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Stems Gallery, Brussels
Stems Gallery is pleased to present “Lucky Food” the first exhibition of Jane Dickson at the gallery. Which includes works spanning from the past two decades, and a selection of Charlie Ahearn’s videos: “Jane in Peepland” (1993, 20 min), “Doin’ Time in Times Square” (1991, 40 min), and a newly finished video “Times Square Motor Hotel 1986-1992” (2020, 12 min).
Jane Dickson is a major figure in New York City’s complex creative history.
Born in 1952 in Chicago, she arrived in the late 70s in New York City, where she lived, worked and raised her two children in an apartment on 8th Avenue and 43rd Street in Times Square. Dickson began a job programming visuals for Times Square’s first digital billboard. She mostly worked the night shift and was responsible for the New Year’s Eve countdown, witnessing faces reflecting in the hallucinatory glow. Dickson came to prominence in the New York art world as a part of the late 70s and 80s alternative and punk art scene downtown. Part of the canonical artist cooperative Colab (aka Collaborative Projects, Inc.), the radical artists collective known for its experimental art exhibitions that pushed the limits of artistic categories and launched graffiti and street art, which staged the Real Estate Show and The Times Square Show in 1980.
Dickson’s focus includes other facets of the Architecture of Distraction. Her paintings interpret the interiors of gambling environments and exteriors of which have become omnipresent “leisure-time” distractions, absorbing large amounts of daily life and American dream-life. She began to photograph through the window of her apartment the daily street hustle from above. Dickson captured the neon and vivid colors of strip clubs, peep shows, 24/7 cinemas, sex shops, and liquor stores.
For multiple years now she has been painting on unconventional supports, using man-made materials that are culturally devaluated, chosen by the artist for their sensual embrace and the resonance of a specific material with a specific subject. Astroturf for blurred views of urban or suburban landscapes. The artificial grass comes in a variety of colors ranging from Caribbean blue to nature’s best green and lawn green. We know it as synthetic grass still, we read it as grass while using Astroturf the artist can paint elements, like highways and cars and leave the rest blank. The paint goes on in a particularized scumble, holding on each artificial grass particle like a pointillist touch from the brush.
Dickson received her BFA at Harvard University and previously earned a Studio Diploma at School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Her work has been exhibited globally and is included in the collections of more than 30 museums including The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art, the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, and the Brooklyn Museum, among others. She is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Award, and in 2008 she was commissioned by MTA to produce a permanent artwork for Times Square Station.
Jane Dickson, Lucky Food, 2020, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Jane Dickson, Lucky Food, 2020, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Jane Dickson, Lucky Food, 2020, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Jane Dickson, Lucky Food, 2020, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Jane Dickson, Lucky Food, 2020, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Jane Dickson, Lucky Food, 2020, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Jane Dickson, Lucky Food, 2020, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Jane Dickson, Lucky Food, 2020, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Jane Dickson, Lucky Food, 2020, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Jane Dickson, Lucky Food, 2020, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
Jane Dickson, Lucky Food, 2020, exhibition view, Stems Gallery, Brussels
JANE DICKSON, HIGH STRYKER, 2005, Oil on vinyl, 58.4 x 81.3 cm, 23 x 32 inches
JANE DICKSON, JEWELRY BOOTH, RED FLOWERS, 2005, Oilstick on vinyl, 58.4 x 81.3 cm, 23 x 32 inches
JANE DICKSON, ROSES TATTOOS, 2002, Oilstick Rolotex on canvas, 80.0 x 80.0 cm, 31 x 31 inches
JANE DICKSON, STUDY FOR LUCKY FOOD, 2001, Oil on astroturf, 53.0 x 104.0 cm, 21 x 41 inches
JANE DICKSON, SMILE 2, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, 111.8 x 66.0 cm, 44 x 26 inches
JANE DICKSON, WIN 25 CENTS TO PLAY, 2005, Oil stick on vinyl, 58.4 x 81.3 cm, 23 x 32 inches
JANE DICKSON, 1 IN WINS, 2005, Oil stick on linen, 60.9 x 71.1 cm, 24 x 28 inches
JANE DICKSON, WINCHELL’S 1, 2002, Oil on astroturf on canvas, 55.8 x 96.5 cm, 22 x 38 inches
JANE DICKSON, FASCINATION 3, 2017, Gouache on Tyvek, 45.7 x 60.9 cm, 18 x 24 inches
JANE DICKSON, PEEPLAND ANGEL, 2017, Gouache on Tyvek, 45.7 x 60.3 cm, 18 x 23.75 inches
JANE DICKSON, ADONIS, 2017, Acrylic and gouache on Tyvek laid to canvas, 25.4 x 35.5 cm, 10 x 14 inches