Higher Ground: Josh Dorman Exhibition, Performance, & Reception
Fri Jan 31, 5:30 PM - Fri Jan 31, 9:00 PM

Dorman will be a part of a performance, visit graduate studios, and attend an opening reception for his solo-exhibition, “Higher Ground,” in the Welch School Gallery Lobby on January 31 from 6 to 9pm.

Painter Josh Dorman’s use of historical signifiers make visible the timeline of human progress, while speaking to the dire implications of our technological achievements, and so-called dominion over the natural world. Dorman’s current work continues to suggest a prophetic narrative playing out on a metaphorical stage, revealing tension between evolutionary timelines, both human and ecological. He references the alteration of the natural world, pointing to the devastating result of climate change and the disappearance of species, but through a veil of otherwise innocuous if not highly celebrated expressions of human ingenuity.

Josh Dorman was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1966. He lives and works in New York City and in the Catskill Mountains. He received a BA from Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, and an MFA from Queens College, Flushing, NY. His work is represented by Ryan Lee Gallery in New York City, Koplin Del Rio in Seattle, and John Martin Gallery in London. His shows have been reviewed in ArtNews, Art in America, LA Times, BOMB Magazine, The Paris Review, Modern Painters, ArtForum, and The New Yorker, and has been the subject of essays by acclaimed authors Paul Auster, Nam Le and Michael Chabon.

“Higher Ground” will be on view from January 13 – March 1 in the Ernest G. Welch School Galleries and will include drawing, painting and stop-motion instillations by Josh Dorman in both the large and small galleries. The exhibition is curated by Printmaking Faculty Stephanie Kolpy.

Curatorial Statement:
"I first saw Josh Dorman’s work inNew York, Chelsea District in 2008. I instantly fell in love with his visual language and prophetic compositions that seemed to unbury past neglects of humankind. His use of historical signifiers—depictions of architectural, agricultural, and scientific advancement, for example—have a way of making visible the timeline of human progress, while at the same time speaking to the dire implications of our technological achievements, and so-called dominion over the n