Josh Dorman: In the Presence

View the dreamlike landscapes and portraits by visual artist Josh Dorman in the Winter Garden Gallery. Titled, In the Presence, the exhibit incorporates two bodies of work that the artist has developed over the past five years.

“Each being looks back at us, with many sets of eyes, through the air of their own dreams. We feel their presence and wonder about our own. Each porous, without boundary. Assembled of eyes and visions, ears and sounds, brains and minds, teeth, and voices. We are memories, calculations, histories, cells, roots, beauty, fear, love, and joy. The paintings are assembled, found, constructed, and excavated, evolving in layers over months and years. The process is mysterious, even to myself. By interweaving antique collage materials, I hope to dislocate us in time: 1930’s wallpaper, player piano scrolls, diagrams clipped from musty old textbooks (Botany, Geology, Engineering, etc.).

Two bodies of work have emerged in my studio over the last 5 years. One might think of them as landscape mode and portrait mode– the dream and the dreamers. I’m thrilled to pair and share them in the Winter Garden Gallery. To bring the works out of my studio and out of a traditional gallery space is a gift. My hope is that you’ll be drawn in to look closer, to be present in the presence.”

– Josh Dorman

About Josh Dorman

Josh Dorman b. 1966 lives and works in New York City and in the Catskills Mountains. His work is represented by Ryan Lee Gallery in New York City, where he’s had five solo exhibits. His work is also represented by Koplin Del Rio in Seattle, and John Martin Gallery in London.

His work is in private collections around the world and in several U.S. museums. His shows have been reviewed in ArtNews, Art in America, LA Times, BOMB Magazine, The Paris Review, Modern Painters, ArtForum, and The New Yorker, and he’s been the subject of essays by acclaimed authors Paul Auster, Michael Chabon and Nam Le. From 2009 to 2014, Dorman created seven animated short films to accompany Anna Clyne’s The Violin. In 2009, he received a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and he has been awarded residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, I-Park, Millay Colony and Art Omi. Dorman has been a visiting artist and lecturer at numerous institutions including The Art Academy London, Skidmore College, Maryland Institute of Art, the Welch School of Art & Design, and Mass Art and he currently teaches at the Spence School. In 2021, Dorman’s work and an essay on Charles Burchfield was featured in a long-form piece in The Smithsonian Archives of American Art Journal, and his work was published in the Harvard Advocate.