The Black Experience in America is always difficult to define. The truth about what it is to be a human being in a land that is not representative of your roots, to have been enslaved and turned into a profit-making commodity, to be continually oppressed and treated as “less than,” while being massaged enough to keep you comfortable to continue to contribute to this country’s “greatness,” is not something that words can always convey. Marita’s work does what words cannot.
Pieces that have been discarded, torn away, re-defined, re-distributed or just plain used to death are brought lovingly together to create something new and unlike anything else in existence. Structurally, no two are alike. But all are demonstrative of the universal truth that nothing real can be threatened and matter can only be transformed, it can never truly be destroyed. This means that while there may be varying parts, it all comes together to form a complete whole. Her use of found parts that are brought together to create a sculptural form are indicative of the various pieces that make up the Black American in all its ultimately unified, undefinable glory. From the ashes rises the immortal phoenix.
-Myesha Clayton for Wa Na Wari Gallery Guide
Pieces that have been discarded, torn away, re-defined, re-distributed or just plain used to death are brought lovingly together to create something new and unlike anything else in existence. Structurally, no two are alike. But all are demonstrative of the universal truth that nothing real can be threatened and matter can only be transformed, it can never truly be destroyed. This means that while there may be varying parts, it all comes together to form a complete whole. Her use of found parts that are brought together to create a sculptural form are indicative of the various pieces that make up the Black American in all its ultimately unified, undefinable glory. From the ashes rises the immortal phoenix.
-Myesha Clayton for Wa Na Wari Gallery Guide
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Marita Dingus attended Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia (BFA, 1980) and San Jose State University (MFA, 1985). She has received a Visual Art Fellowship from Artist Trust (1994), a John S. Guggenheim Fellowship (1999), and the Morrie and Joan Alhadeff PONCHO Artist of the Year Award (2005).
Dingus has had solo shows at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter and The Stenersen Museum, both in Norway (2002, 2006), as well as the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA (2005 - 2006). Her work has been included in Nature/Culture organized by The Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh (2006 - 2008), Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC (2006 - 2007) and 21st Century American Women Artists at the Residence of the United States Ambassador to NATO in Brussels, Belgium (2006 - 2010). Her work is in many regional museums and corporate collections. Dingus currently lives and works in the state of Washington and is represented by Traver Gallery in Seattle. |