Gallery Talk: Richard Dana: People, Places and Otherwise

Curator Nancy Sausser and artist Richard Dana, will discuss the exhibition "Richard Dana: People, Places and Otherwise", in a gallery talk scheduled for

Saturday, 2:00- 3:00pm

About the exhibition:

Richard Dana, Artist

Nancy Sausser, Curator

For more than four decades, self-taught artist Richard Dana has returned to drawing as his most essential form of expression. This exhibition brings together a wide-ranging selection of works in graphite, charcoal, and ink, spanning early to recent pieces.

As you move through the exhibition, you’ll encounter a vivid and often unexpected visual world: a young genie emerging from a bottle in a barren landscape, a startled businessman holding a baby in a midnight office, enigmatic portraits, and phantasmagorical structures and terrains. Dana’s work moves fluidly between the recognizable and the surreal, suggesting parallel worlds that feel at once strange and familiar.

Experimentation drives Dana’s practice. Drawing on sources as varied as the human condition, the natural world, science, and global cultures, he transforms observation and imagination into images that are both intricate and open-ended. Using simple materials with remarkable range, Dana creates images that are visually rich and emotionally resonant. Rather than prescribe meaning, he invites you to engage, question, and find your own connections within these layered and evocative works.

With 25 solo exhibitions and participation in over 140 group shows, Richard Dana has exhibited widely in major American cities and in twenty countries. Before “morphing into an artist”, he worked as a Soviet affairs analyst for the government.

This event will be held in-person at the museum.

Please direct any questions about this event to the museum's main contact for this event, Patricia Poku-Speight at [email protected].

Image: Richard Dana, From Above to Below, 2002-2006. Charcoal, graphite and lace, 88 x 62 inches.

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Host or Publisher American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center