Michael Dixon: I, Too, Sing America

MICHAEL DIXON I, Too, Sing America

DAVID RICHARD GALLERY

ISBN: 978-1-7331016-2-2 Front cover: Installation image of I, Too, Sing America at David Richard Gallery Title page: Installation image of I, Too, Sing America at David Richard Gallery Pages 38 - 39: Installation image of I, Too, Sing America at David Richard Gallery Pages 40 - 41: Installation image of I, Too, Sing America at David Richard Gallery Back cover: Installation image of I, Too, Sing America at David Richard Gallery

Printed on the occasion of the exhibition I, Too, Sing America at David Richard Gallery April 5, 2019 - May 4, 2019

Published by: David Richard Gallery, LLC, 211 East 121st Street, New York, NY 10035 www.DavidRichardGallery.com 212-882-1705 | 505-983-9555 DavidRichardGalleries DavidRichardGallery Gallery Staff: David Eichholtz and Richard Barger, Managers

All rights reserved by David Richard Gallery, LLC. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in whole or part in digital or printed form of any kind whatsoever without the express written permission of David Richard Gallery, LLC.

Artwork: © 2015 - 2018 Michael Dixon Catalogue: © 2019 David Richard Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

Catalogue Design: David Eichholtz and Richard Barger, David Richard Gallery, LLC, New York, NY Images: © 2019 David Richard Gallery, LLC, New York, NY Installation Images: Yao Zu Lu

DAVID RICHARD GALLERY

MICHAEL DIXON I, Too, Sing America

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Michael Dixon and David Eichholtz during artist talk of I, Too, Sing America at David Richard Gallery, NY 2019

Two Worlds Dixon’s work is about belonging and fitting into a particular culture and ethnicity as part of a bi-racial experience. This social and psychological need provides, understandably, a certain amount of emotional security and nurturing. There is an overwhelming desire for one person to not define another purely based on that person’s skin color, or ethnicity, and for them to share a mutual tolerance and acceptance of each other. Yet, there is also an underlying need for individuals to belong to and identify with a specific ethnicity and culture in order to know the established social constructs and norms within those communities. However, the dynamic seems to change when a person is born into two different races, neither of which can always see that individual as whole.

Dixon lives in two worlds, always feeling that he is not black enough or white enough for either race and thus, not fully included within either. On one hand, he experiences discrimination and prejudice as a Black man, but on the other, he often enjoys the privileges of passing as white at times due to his light skin color. The polarizing experiences challenge his identity and where he fits, not only in terms of African American history, but also in terms of his day-to-day life and future relationships.

On a personal and practical level, Dixon copes with these personal racial challenges through his art. In a recent artist statement, he said, “I have experienced fluidity in the perception of my race and ethnicity as a light skinned, bi-racial Black man. My struggles to fit into a racial group category and how I fashion an authentic self, while constantly feeling like an outsider, is the foundational and emotional content of my work”.

The title of this exhibition, I, Too, Sing America, is the first line from I Too, a poem by Langston Hughes. The last line of the poem is equally profound and important, I, too, am America. The imagery in these paintings is powerful and haunting as it references both the historical and current racism and rage against African American communities in the United States. Dixon’s paintings are informed by the violence against Black men and women spanning slavery and the prejudice of Jim Crow Laws to recent shootings of unarmed Black men across the US and moreover, how the police and criminal justice system responds, or not, to such violence and discrimination.

The paintings are self-portraits, with very few exceptions; all are oil on canvas with just a partial view of the figure coming into the picture from the left, right or bottom and sometimes the painful reminder of dangling legs entering from the top. Dixon’s approach is reductive with no background or setting, thus emphasizing only the figure and how the artist is perceived by himself and viewed by others. The focus is on the brush stroke, minimizing the details and capturing only the essence of emotions, expressions and gestures. The broad and bold gestures are soulful, conveying tension, frustration, pain, horror, dismay and sorrow, which are the artist’s experiences on a regular basis.

David Eichholtz New York March 2019

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Michael Dixon Birmingham 1963, 2018 Oil on canvas 24” x 36” x 1.5”

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Michael Dixon Colorblind America, 2015 Oil on canvas 48” x 48” x 1.5”

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Michael Dixon I’m Not Your Negro, 2017 Oil on canvas 36” x 36” x 1.5”

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Michael Dixon The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same, 2017 Oil on canvas 48” x 48” x 1.5”

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Michael Dixon With Liberty and Justice for All, 2017 Oil on canvas 48” x 48” x 1.5”

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Michael Dixon There is Not a Nation on Earth Guilty of Practices More Shocking and Bloody, 2018 Oil on canvas 48” x 48” x 1.5”

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Michael Dixon People Are Trapped in History and History is Trapped in Them, 2018 Oil on canvas 36” x 36” x 1.5”

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Michael Dixon I’ve Got the George Zimmerman Blues / Jazz Hands, 2018 Oil on canvas 48” x 48” x 1.5”

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Michael Dixon Comfortably Numb, 2018 Oil on canvas 48” x 48” x 1.5”

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Michael Dixon White Liberal, 2018 Oil on canvas 60” x 48” x 1.5”

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Michael Dixon We Have Not Ended Racial Caste in America; We Have Merely Redesigned It, 2015 Oil on canvas 20” x 20” x 1.5”

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Michael Dixon Let Me Say That We Have Failed To Say Something To America Enough, 2015 Oil on canvas 20” x 20” x 1.5”

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Michael Dixon Raghead I, 2015 Oil on canvas 20” x 20” x 1.5”

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Michael Dixon The Fourth of July is Yours, Not Mine, 2015 Oil on canvas 48” x 36” x 1.5”

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Michael Dixon Make America Great Again, 2017 Oil on canvas 48” x 48” x 1.5”

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Michael Dixon The Antagonist, 2015 Oil on canvas 48” x 60” x 1.5”

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About the Artwork

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“I use self-portraiture as a narrative device to explore the areas of identity, race, identity perception, African American history, and social justice. I often use my own racial identity as the topic of my work. I have experienced fluidity in the perception of my race and ethnicity as a light skinned, bi-racial Black man. My struggles to fit into a racial group category and how I fashion an authentic self, while constantly feeling like an outsider, is the foundational and emotional content of my work. I am primarily interested in the experiences of bi-racial people who might share in this struggle. Is there a unique bi-racial experience? My work seeks to find out.

“Along with my personal identity struggles, the historical legacy of racism in the United States for communities of color informs my experiences.

My current work responds to the police killings of unarmed Black men, women, and children across America. While this is a constant attack on the Black community, the increased international media attention, public awareness, and public movements are new phenomena. The recent killings of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner to Tamir Rice and Michael Brown, illustrate that Black victims can range in age from 12 to 50 years old. This raises the question of the value of Black bodies in contemporary America, which is linked to a long history of violence against its Black population through slavery, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration. My aim is to locate myself in this discussion as a bi-racial Black man who has both been the victim of racism and has in some instances “passed” for white because of my light skin. I see this as the cost of a legacy of racism that particularly troubles me and this conversation must continue.”

Michael Dixon

About Michael Dixon: Michael Dixon is an artist working primarily with oil paint. He was born in San Diego, California, and received his MFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder in painting, and a BFA from Arizona State University in painting and drawing. Dixon is currently a Full Professor of Art at Albion College. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, Joan Mitchell Foundation Emergency Grant, Puffin Foundation Grant, Blanchard Fellowship, and Phi Beta Kappa Scholar of the Year Award. Dixon has received numerous artist residencies including the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, Yaddo, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Ragdale Foundation. His work has been shown both nationally and internationally at museums, universities, art centers, alternative spaces, and galleries. Dixon explores the personal, societal, and aesthetic struggles of belonging to both “white” and “black” racial and cultural identities, yet simultaneously belonging fully to neither.

The works of artists such as Robert Colescott, Beverly McIver, Michael Ray Charles, Glenn Ligon, and Kerry James Marshall have informed his work.

Michael Dixon during artist talk of The Narrative Figure at David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, NM in May 2016

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DAVID RICHARD GALLERY