Moira Dryer @ The Philipps Collection, Washington DC - Back in Business

Moira Dryer: Back in Business 
The Phillips Collection, Washington DC
February 8 – April 19, 2020

MOIRA DRYER

Untitled (1985)

Flashe on panel, 24 x 48 in. and 11 x 15 in.

Collection of James Keith Brown and Eric Diefenbach 

© Estate of Moira Dryer

The Phillips Collection presents 24 three-dimensional abstract paintings by MOIRA DRYER (b. 1957, Toronto; d. 1992, New York). Marking the first comprehensive survey in almost 20 years, the exhibition considers the works Moira Dryer created from 1985 to 1990.

“This exhibition will highlight the thoughtful development of Moira Dryer’s work over a short period of time and the references from which she pulled. Dryer used abstraction as a language to express her everyday experiences to elicit emotion in her viewers. The works are full of humor, pain, nostalgia, and criticality,” says Lily Siegel, guest curator of the exhibition and Executive Director and Curator of the Greater Reston Arts Center (GRACE) in Reston, Virginia.

“During her life, Moira Dryer had a dedicated group of admirers and she continues to influence artists today,” says Klaus Ottmann, Chief Curator and Deputy Director for Academic Affairs at The Phillips Collection. “The sculptural quality of her paintings, which were among the first to combine figuration and abstraction, embodied the independence of spirit, innovation, and experimentation that Duncan Phillips championed—and paved the way for many artists working today.” 

From her artistic beginnings in the early 1980s until her death, Moira Dryer pursued a line of work in dialogue with Modernist painting and abstraction while in consideration of more contemporary themes. Before devoting herself full-time to painting, Dryer worked as a set designer for the avant-garde theater company Mabou Mines. The theater continued to influence her painting and the way she spoke about her work. In a conversation with Ottmann in 1988, she described her paintings as props that put on plays. Similar to Mark Rothko who famously spoke of his mature paintings as performers in an emotional drama, for Moira Dryer, “the paintings are the performers. It’s really up to the audience at that point to say what the specific production is. The pieces evolve from a very personal, emotional point, but then they become entities in themselves. I give them life and then they become their own.”

Moira Dryer: Back in Business considers Moira Dryer’s development vis-à-vis her participation and interest in theater production, specifically the use of her paintings to define space. Her work progresses from recognizable theater references such as curtains and spatial representations to abstract portraits that begin to move toward sculpture. Moira Dryer infused her works with a level of pathos that brought her paintings to life, creating abstract images with biographical elements that responded to her life in New York. The exhibition title is taken from a newspaper clipping found in the artist’s archive.

“Moira Dryer was a dynamic and innovative artist of her time,” says Dr. Dorothy Kosinski, Vradenburg Director and CEO of The Phillips Collection. “Museum founder Duncan Phillips was drawn to rich textures and bold colors, and her work, with its full-color saturation, strikes up dynamic conversations with pieces in our collection by artists like Mark Rothko and Pierre Bonnard.” 

In addition to the presentation of paintings and sculptures, the exhibition includes a collection of notes, drawings, and photographs from the artist’s archive. Moira Dryer’s position in New York and connection to established artists such as Elizabeth Murray (her mentor) and Julian Schnabel (to whom she was a studio assistant), as well as representation by Mary Boone Gallery, provided exposure of her work to her contemporaries and younger artists. Ephemera from previous exhibitions provide a historical context firmly placing Moira Dryer at the center of the conversation regarding painting in the 1980s and 1990s.

Lily Siegel has also organized a satellite exhibition of Moira Dryer’s work at the Greater Reston Arts Center, on view since January 18 through April 18, 2020. The exhibition, Moira Dryer: Yours for the Taking, provides a more intimate look at the works the artist left in the collections of friends and family, most of which have never before been shown publicly. The title, again, is taken from the artist’s archive in recognition of her generosity, confidence, and singular voice. 

The exhibition catalogue includes an introduction by Klaus Ottmann, essays by Lily Siegel and writer and curator Valerie Smith, a bibliography, exhibition history, and an illustrated checklist.

The exhibition is organized by The Phillips Collection with guest curator Lily Siegel. With lead exhibition support and a Curatorial Fellowship from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION
1600 21st Street NW Washington DC
phillipscollection.org

Moira Dryer @ 11R, New York

Moira Dryer: Paintings & Works on Paper
11R, New York
January 11 – February 7, 2016

MOIRA DRYER

Untitled, 1991

Courtesy 11R, New York

11R (formerly Eleven Rivington) inaugurates its newly constructed and expanded 195 Chrystie Street location with an exhibition of paintings and works on paper from the 1980s and early 1990s by the late MOIRA DRYER (1957 – 1992).  This is the second solo exhibition of Moira Dryer’s work at 11R, and it presents abstract paintings on wood panel, along with a selection of never before exhibited watercolors, gouaches and collages. The show includes printed matter and past exhibition brochures, encouraging an in depth consideration of the artist and a fuller view of her practice.

The exhibition presents work spanning Moira Dryer’s exhibition career, beginning with the small casein on wood Target Landscape, 1985, painted a year before her first solo exhibition.  Two shaped paintings – including the instantly iconic The Debutante, 1987 – highlight the artist’s interest in contradicting the physicality and object-like quality of taut, painted plywood; in both works, Moira Dryer thrusts the picture plane towards the space of the viewer, dramatically altering our understanding of each work’s surface and support. 

A selection of works on paper – shown here for the first time – underscores the deliberateness of Moira Dryer’s methods, the offhand, yet specific touch of her paint application, and her pictorial considerations.  The works gathered here include painted and cut paper; collage; watercolors; and gouaches.  The work Untitled, 1989, is a cool gray field framed by the artist’s dark thumbprints. 

MOIRA DRYER was born in 1957, in Toronto, and moved to NY in the late 1970s to study at the School of Visual Arts, where she graduated with honors in 1981.  During her early years in the city, Dryer was a student of Elizabeth Murray; she would subsequently be a studio assistant to Murray as well as to Julian Schnabel, while also working freelance as a prop and set maker for local theaters.  Moira Dryer had her first solo exhibition in 1986 at John Good Gallery, NY, followed by two solos at Mary Boone Gallery, NY, and two exhibitions with Mario Diacono, Boston, among others.  During her lifetime, she had solo museum exhibitions at Boston’s Institute for Contemporary Art, in 1987, and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, in 1989.  In 1993, a year after the artist succumbed to a five-year battle with cancer at age 34, a solo Projects exhibition of Moira Dryer’s paintings was presented at The Museum of Modern Art, NY.  Moira Dryer’s work is included in the permanent collections of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; and Museum of Modern Art, NY.

11R
195 Chrystie Street New York, NY 10002
www.11rgallery.com