{{Short description|American painter}} {{Infobox artist | name = Jane Dickson | image = Jane Dickson headshot by Dondre Stuetley.jpg | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1952|5|18}} | birth_place = Chicago, Illinois | death_date = | death_place = | field = Painting, drawing | spouse = Charlie Ahearn }}
'''Jane Dickson''' (born May 18, 1952) is an American painter who lives and works in New York City.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Burdzinski |first=Brendan |date=2022-05-03 |title=Jane Dickson: 99¢ Dreams |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2022/05/artseen/Jane-Dickson-99-Dreams |access-date=2022-07-26 |website=The Brooklyn Rail |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It's Kept |url=https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2022-biennial?section=19 |access-date=2022-07-26 |website=whitney.org |language=en}}</ref> Her practice explores the psychogeography of American culture and was "forged in the crucible of New York’s late-seventies counterculture, where she participated in artist collectives like Fashion Moda, Collaborative Projects, ABC No Rio, and Group Material."<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |title=Jane Dickson |publisher=Karma Books |year=2024 |isbn=978-1-961883-15-4 |editor-last=Larigakis |editor-first=Sophia |pages=365–374}}</ref>
== Biography == Jane Dickson was born in Chicago in 1952.<ref name="TheFigure2000"/> Upon graduation from high school in 1970, she enrolled in the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.<ref name=":1" /> Between 1971 and 1973 she studied at Radcliffe College and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston where she first met artist Nan Goldin. She received her B.A. from Harvard University in 1976, as well as a Studio Diploma from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.<ref name="TheFigure2000">{{cite book |editor1-last=Cooperider |editor1-first=Carrie |editor2-last=Hiller |editor2-first=Melissa |editor3-last=Poole |editor3-first=Jennifer |title=The Figure: Another Side of Modernism |date=2000 |publisher=Snug Harbor Cultural Center |location=Staten Island, N.Y. |isbn=978-0-9604254-2-6 |page=210 |url=https://archive.org/details/figureanothersid0000unse/page/210/ |access-date=17 June 2024}}</ref>
== Artwork == Dickson is known for her dark iconic images that examine "the constructed world, and its psychological freight, the social structuring of desire and its disruption by the uncanny".<ref>{{cite web|last=Kabat|first=Jennifer|title=Jane Dickson: A Walk on the Dark Side|url=https://theweeklings.com/jane-dickson/|accessdate=24 September 2024|date=2 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240523144615/https://theweeklings.com/jane-dickson/|archive-date=2024-05-23|url-status=live}}</ref> Deploying unusual materials such as AstroTurf, vinyl, sandpaper, felt and carpet, which resonate with their particular subject, Dickson's paintings express her "fascination with the power of artificial light, as well as...surreal and sexually transgressive environment[s]".<ref>{{cite web|last=Kussatz|first=Simone|title=April 2011, Art, Access & Decay: New York 1975-1985|url=http://www.whitehotmagazine.com/articles/decay-new-york-1975-1985/2270|accessdate=14 May 2014|date=April 2011}}</ref> Often depicting the spectacle in her work, her subjects include Times Square (where she lived and/or worked from 1978 to 2008, participating in the Colab organized ''The Times Square Show''), demolition derbies, carnivals, suburban homes, and highways, among others.<ref>{{cite book|last=Frizzell|first=Deborah|title=Whose World is This? Jane Dickson & Charlie Ahearn|date=2012|publisher=William Paterson University Galleries|location=Wayne, NJ|url=http://www.wpunj.edu/dotAsset/98d24ca2-e0c9-46fb-9fcf-07da68997a16.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Fenstermaker |first1=Will |title=Jane Dickson: Are We There Yet? |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2024/10/artseen/jane-dickson-are-we-there-yet/ |website=The Brooklyn Rail |access-date=4 January 2025}}</ref>
In addition to her large body of paintings, the artist organized “Messages to the Public”, a Public Art Fund series which presented monthly artists’ projects created for Spectacolor's 1 Times Square Billboard. The project ran from 1982 to 1990 and the artists presented include Keith Haring and Jenny Holzer. In her most recent contribution to Times Square, Dickson designed 67 mosaics of New Year's Eve revelers that were installed within the Port Authority 42nd Street and Times Square subway stations.<ref>{{cite news|last=Gardner|first=Ralph|title=Artist of the Interstate Jane Dickson Has Played a Role in Times Square's Revival|url=https://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304014504579248411246446056|accessdate=30 April 2014|newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|date=December 9, 2013}}</ref> Commissioned by the MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) in 2008, the mosaics are composed of Murano glass, and as art historian Janetta Rebold Benton describes, the figures with their party hats and horns "seem able to elevate the moods of the actual people who hurry along the corridor."<ref>{{cite book|last=Rebold Benton|first=Janetta and Robert DiYanni|title=Arts and Culture: An Introduction to the Humanities: Combined Volume|date=2012|publisher=Prentice Hall|location=Boston|pages=598–99|edition=4th|chapter=Diversity in Contemporary Life}}</ref>
== Exhibitions == Dickson's work has been featured in 40 solo exhibitions and almost <ref>{{Cite web |first=Jill|last=Rosen|date=2015-10-12 |title=An artist of textures: Jane Dickson to speak at Johns Hopkins |url=https://hub.jhu.edu/2015/10/12/artist-jane-dickson-visit/ |access-date=2022-06-15 |website=The Hub |language=en}}</ref> 200 group exhibitions in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Her pieces are in the permanent collections of 25 museums such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), The Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Art Institute of Chicago. She received The Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant in 2013. She is married to American film director, Charlie Ahearn. Dickson is included in the 2022 Whitney Biennial.<ref name=":0" />
== Bibliography of works by Jane Dickson ==
* Jane Dickson, ''Jane Dickson In Times Square''. Brooklyn, NY: Anthology Editions. 2018. 272 pp. ISBN 978-1-944860-14-1 [https://anthology.net/book/jane-dickson-times-square/] * Laura Brown, ''James Fuentes Press #4: Jane Dickson.'' New York, NY: James Fuentes Press. 2022. 151 pp. ISBN 978-1-7365415-4-8 [https://jamesfuentespress.square.site/product/jane-dickson/355]
== References == <references />
==External links== *[http://janedickson.com/ Artist's Website] *[http://hyperallergic.com/68265/beer-with-a-painter-jane-dickson/ Interview by Jennifer Samet] *[http://hyperallergic.com/58439/why-are-we-revisiting-the-times-square-show/ Interview by Emily Colucci] *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmN4f2_Lmvc City Maze, a film by Jane Dickson] *[http://viralart.vandalog.com/read/chapter/the-mudd-club-and-beyond-words/ The Mudd Club and “Beyond Words” by RJ Rushmore] *[https://www.artpapers.org/jane-dickson-and-time-square/ Interview by William Corwin] *[https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/2018/07/22/times-square-artist-book/ Lonely Planet Article] *[https://www.tatler.com/article/best-new-art-books/ Tatler Best New Art Books]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickson, Jane}} Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century American painters Category:Harvard University alumni Category:American contemporary painters Category:Artists from New York (state) Category:21st-century American painters Category:Painters from Chicago