Installation Art | United States | Europe
Edward Dormer is a conceptual artist who has exhibited in the US and Europe and has received many grant awards, fellowships, invitations and commissions to realize his vision. Some of his more notable honors included a residency funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts at Château de La Napoule in Southern France, a public art grant from Gniew Castle in Northern Poland, and several high-profile opportunities during a year of making works in Berlin/Potsdam Germany. Installations sites have varied in size, place and historical significance. US sites range from nature preserves, to the uncontrollable anthracite mine-fire in renowned Centralia Pennsylvania, to the Delaware River flowing past Philadelphia’s abandoned industrial piers. In Europe, compelling sites include a tomb-tower on the French Riviera, a grove in the Dordogne Valley, Teutonic Castle in North Poland, and a dilapidated military base in Potsdam, Germany.
A few words about the work...
Each project is unto itself. However, given their corporeal yet conceptual nature, they do share common traits. Issues such as land use, ecological concerns, philosophical underpinnings and ephemeral effects of time define common threads inherent in each. Unseen historic layers particular to each site is paramount.
‘LANDING EAST WEST CYCLE’, is about an invasive plant and its suppression, connected intrinsically within an intentionally sanitized, yet romantically sublime landscape. ‘CUT HERE: INSTRUCTION COMMAND OPTION’, seemingly simple in approach, speculates on the artifice of suburban and urban expansion as one moves through this tentatively protected forested area. ‘MOLECULAR NOTATION’ floating in a river connects to the surrounding “brown fields” polluted by PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls). ‘BLOWBACK’ has conceptual roots in Middle East archeology methods of sorting artifacts and the bathing of ‘oil-soaked’ histories. Lastly, ‘MINEFIELD’, excavated from Pennsylvania anthracite belt is metaphorically analogous to that of minefields that transform physical and ideological landscapes of contemporary culture.
A signature optical phenomenon unique to each installation engages the viewer over time, setting a contemplative tone. Stoicism and isolation, compassion and reflection, extracts meaning and gains understanding ostensibly from nothing. Iconic reverence has no place in this work.
Please contact Edward with questions or comments. If you have a site in mind please by all means…
Selected Solo | Exhibition Venues | Project Locations
GERMANY GDR Military Base, Potsdam
POLAND Gniew Castle-Arts and Culture Center Sculpture Park, Gniew
USA Anthracite Mine: Centralia, Pennsylvania; Nature Preserve: Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Philadelphia; Delaware River, Philadelphia; Historic Botanic Garden: Bartram’s Garden, Philadelphia; Carbon 14 Gallery, Philadelphia; Nexus Foundation for the Arts, Philadelphia; Bird Park, Gallery Joe, Philadelphia; Central Carolina Bank Gallery, Durham Arts Council Building, North Carolina; Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia; The University of the Arts, Philadelphia
Selected Group | Exhibition Venues | Project Locations
FRANCE Château de La Napoule
GERMANY Kulturhaus Altes Rathaus, Potsdam; Art Frankfurt No.10/11, Gallery Markus Richter, Frankfurt am Main; Galerie Markus Richter, Potsdam; Landesentwicklungsgesellschaft, Wohnen; Bundesgartenschau BUGA 2001, Potsdam
POLAND State Gallery of Art, Sopot; Gniew Castle-Arts and Culture Center, Gniew
USA American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters; Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Philadelphia; Minima Gallery, Philadelphia; Painted Bride Center, Philadelphia; Burlington County Community College, New Jersey; Chesterwood: National Trust for Historic Preservation, Stockbridge, Mass.; The Temple Gallery, Temple University, Philadelphia; The University of the Arts, Philadelphia; Rutgers University, New Jersey
Awards | Residencies | Symposiums
FRANCE Residency/Cultural Exchange funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and La Napoule Art Foundation: Château de La Napoule
GERMANY Residency/Symposium funded by Gärten der Senses, Gehren; Special Prize, Bundesgartenschau BUGA 2001, Potsdam
POLAND NOTOR Artists’ Residency/Syposium; Gniew Castle-Arts and Culture Center Public Art Grant
USA New Forms Grant funded by The National Endowment for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and The Rockerfeller Foundation; Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship; Art in the Environment II: ICA Philadelphia, Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, and Philadelphia Sculptors
Bibliography
Reviews and articles of the artists’ work and collaborations are in such publications as: Berliner Morgenpost, Potsdamer Stadtkurier, Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten, Märkische Allgemeine, Art Matters, Schenectady Gazette, Times Union, Oskars Magazine, Philadelphia Style Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia City Paper, Philadelphia Weekly.
