College of The Albemarle (COA) is pleased to announce an exhibition of works by Dawn Dickson Van Ness. “This is Not An Art Show” will open on August 16, 2024, in the Professional Arts Building at COA – Dare.
According to Van Ness, she uses found objects, paintings, and installations to explore life as an artist – from the pressure to be legitimized by commercial success to internal hang-ups. “This is Not An Art Show” leads the viewer through the steps it takes to fully identify as an artist in a sometimes humorous, sometimes serious, visual exploration.
Van Ness shared,
“I’ve always found it funny and frustrating that to be acknowledged as an artist I needed to be legitimized by sales or the higher art community, but to seek commercial success somehow nullifies me as a legitimate artist. The commercialized artist and art works that reached and inspired me are not to be modeled. It’s enough to make you crazy. Pursuing art with a capital A, art that is supposed to be experienced, is fraught with existential issues. Be commercial, but not too much. Be an Artist, but not too much. Support yourself, but not with your art. Be known, but not popular. Be known, but only after you’re dead. How can a thinking artist create and thrive in this world? How should I be an Artist?”
The exhibition will run from August 16 – September 13, 2024. The gallery is on the second floor of the Professional Arts Building at COA – Dare, 205 Highway 64 S, Manteo, NC. It will be open to the public Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The artist reception, open to the public, will be held on Thursday, August 22, from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. at COA – Dare.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Dawn Van Ness is a self-taught artist who grew up partly on a marshy waterway at the back of a suburban neighborhood in Virginia Beach and partly on her father’s homestead property in Skipwith, Virginia. The subject of restorative nature sometimes disrupted by increasing human encroachment, pollution, littering, and weather instability dominates her past body of work. Complicating things has been the pressure not to embrace being a serious artist or to commercialize her artwork to suit the tastes of consumer, middle-class culture.
For information or media inquiries, contact Tammy W. Sawyer, COA Director of Communications and Marketing, at 252-335-0821 ext. 2420 or [email protected].