Dozier Bell

Biography
Dozier Bell (b.1957) paints dreamy landscapes that convey a sense of presence. Her paintings evoke memory of a place more than the place itself. Bell’s mysterious compositions and dark palette connect to Northern Romanticism, and she describes her work as her spiritual life. She explores the theme Heimsuchung, which encompasses two extremes of human experience: everyday union with the divine, and the devastation and annihilation of the physical self. Bell relates this 12th-century concept to the contemporary issue of global warming and its ubiquitous consequences.

Bell studied philosophy prior to earning an MFA at the University of Pennsylvania. Her paintings can be found in many prominent collections, including the Denver Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Portland Museum of Art in Maine.

She is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including two Pollock-Krasner Foundation grants, a Fulbright Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant. Residencies include the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, and the MacDowell Colony. Bell currently lives and works on her family farm in Maine, where seven generations of her family have lived.

I’ve begun to work with more personal imagery that has to do with the persistence of the past in the present, and with German Romantic literature and its idea of a sentient universe. It seems very relevant to climate change.  —Dozier Bell

Education
1986
MFA, University of Pennsylvania

1985
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture

1981
BA, Smith College

Selected One and Two Person Shows
2019
Dozier Bell: Half-light, Danese / Corey Gallery, New York, NY

2018
Dozier Bell: The Limits of Civilization, Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL

2017
Danese / Corey Gallery, New York, NY

2016
Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME

2014
Danese / Corey Gallery, New York, NY

2013
The Mind’s Eye: Dozier Bell Drawings, Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME

2010
Dozier Bell: Momenta, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME
Aucocisco Gallery, Portland, ME

2009
La Galeria, Barcelona, Spain
DFN Gallery, New York, NY

2007
Gold/Smith Gallery, Boothbay Harbor, ME
Aucocisco Gallery, Portland, ME

2006
DFN Gallery, New York, NY

2005
Aucocisco Gallery, Portland, ME
Chase Gallery, Boston, MA

2004
University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor, ME
Aether National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC
DFN Gallery, New York, NY

2003
The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
A.V.C. Gallery, New York, NY

2002
Aucocisco Gallery, Portland, ME

2001
Chase Gallery, Boston, MA

2000
June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME
Schmidt-Bingham Gallery, New York, NY

1999
Chase Gallery, Boston, MA

1998
Dozier Bell: Primary Themes, Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, CT (catalog)
June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, MESchmidt-Bingham Gallery, New York, NY

1995
The Dissonant Heart (in collaboration with the poet Wesley McNair), Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME (catalog)
Schmidt-Bingham Gallery, New York, NY

1994
Original Place: Recent Work by Dozier Bell and Ken Greenleaf, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME, and Center Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA  (catalog)

1992
Schmidt-Bingham Gallery, New York, NY

1991
Bingham-Kurts Gallery, Memphis, TN

1990
Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
Schmidt-Bingham Gallery, New York, NY

1989
Marilyn Butler Fine Arts, Scottsdale, AZ

1988
Schmidt-Bingham Gallery, New York, NY

1987
O’Farrell Gallery, Brunswick, ME

Selected Group Exhibitions
2019
to the moon and back, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2017
48th Collector’s Show & Sale, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR

2016
Drawing Conclusions, Danese / Corey, New York, NY

2015
Land & Sea, Danese / Corey, New York, NY

2015
Director’s Cut: Selections from the Maine Art Museum Trail, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
Dozier Bell, Alan Bray, Kristin Malin, Caldbeck Gallery, Rockland, ME
Land and Sea, Danese Corey Gallery, New York, NY

2014
Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts,  American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
A Gathering, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

2013
Charcoal, Schick Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
Seescape, George Adams Gallery, New York, NY
Woods, Lovely, Dark, and Deep, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY
Maine Women Pioneers: Dirigo, University of New England, Portland, ME

2011
Land, Sea, and Sky: Contemporary Art in Maine, Addison Gallery at Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
Synthetic Supports: Plastic is the New Paper, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX

2010
Dozier Bell, Karen Schiff, Hadi Tabatabai: Drawings, Danese Gallery, New York, NY
Sacred and Profane, Portsmouth Museum of Art, Portsmouth, NH

2009
Selections from the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Portsmouth Atheneum, Portsmouth, NH
Portland Museum of Art Biennial, Portland, ME

2008
Art from Anxious Times, Art Students League, New York, NY
Transcendental and Sublime, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT
Silence La Galeria, Consell de Cent, Barcelona
Midnight Full of Stars, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ

2007
New Artists, Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
Introductions II, Stremmel Gallery, Reno, NV

2006
The Figure in American Painting and Drawing, 1985-2005, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME

2005
The Environment of Landscape: Works from the Olivia and Ellwood Straub, Collection Bates College, Lewiston, ME

2004-07
American Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria

2004
Images of Time and Place: Contemporary Views of Landscape, The Lehman Gallery, Bronx, NY
Facing Reality: The Seavest Collection of Contemporary Realism, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY

2002
50th Anniversary Exhibition, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME
Keenly Observed, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT
Re-presenting Representation V, The Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY

2000
Photographing Maine: 1850 – 2000, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME

1998
After Dark, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME
After Nature, The Herter Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
Seasons of Change: Maine Women Artists and Nature, Payson Gallery, Westbrook College, Portland, ME

1997
Invitational Exhibition, Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN

1996
Destiny Manifest: American Landscape Painting in the 90’s, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL (catalog)
Torn Asunder: Collage in Twentieth-Century Art, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
Inside/Outside: Recent Photography from the MacDowell Colony Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH and the the University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH
Changing Horizons: Landscape on the Eve of the Millennium, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY (catalog)
Skowhegan at 50: The Maine Legacy, Maine Coast Artists, Rockland, ME, and Baxter Gallery, Portland, ME
Fractured Fairy Tales: Art in the Age of Categorical Disintegration, Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, NC (catalog)

1995
Irrational Landscapes, Binghamton University Art Museum, Binghamton, and New York Academy of Sciences, New York, NY

1994
The Collectors’ Show, The Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR
Ten Years, Ten Artists, Albers Fine Art Gallery, Memphis, TN
Dialogues: On and Off the Wall, Schmidt-Bingham Gallery, Garth Clark Gallery, and Peter Joseph Gallery, New York, NY
Landscape not Landscape, Gallery Camino Real, Boca Raton, FL (catalog)
Contemporary Landscapes, Evans-Gropper-Willis Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1993
The Collectors’ Show, The Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, ARLandscape as Metaphor: The Transcendental Vision, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA and Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI
Gender and Identity, Baxter Gallery, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME

1992
Art of Maine: A Bounty of Woods and Water, Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, NJ
Apocalypse and Resurrection, AmFAR Benefit and Exhibition, The Gallery Three Zero, New York, NY
On the Edge: 40 Years of Maine Painting, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME;  Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME (Catalog)

1991
Darkness into Light, Lintas: Worldwide, New York, NY

1990
Perspectives: Celebrating Contemporary Art at the Portland Museum, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
Beyond Black and White: Contemporary Hand-Painted Photographs, The Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME

1989
Interstices, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME
Vision and Visions: Contemporary Landscape Painting, Tavelli Gallery, Aspen, CO
New Work, Dean Velentgas Gallery, Portland, ME
Contemporary Environment, General Electric Company, Fairfield, CT
Landscape of the Spirit, The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT  (catalog)

1988
40th Anniversary Juried Exhibition, The Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME
The Face of the Land, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA
Fresh Paint, The Baxter Gallery, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME

1987
Beyond Observation, Schmidt-Bingham Gallery, New York, NYNew Artists: The Gloria Wilcher Memorial Exhibition, Currier Gallery, Manchester, NH (catalog)
Gallery Invitational, The Farnsworth Museum of Art, Rockland, ME
Six Young Maine Painters, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME

Selected Collections
Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR
Arthur Andersen & Company, St. Paul, MN
AT & T, New York, NY
Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bowdoin, ME
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Exxon Corporation, Irving, TX
Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME
Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA
Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME
Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, CT
Memphis Cancer Center, Memphis, TN
Metropolitan Life, New York, NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Nomura Securities, New York, NY
Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME
ORYX Energy Corporation, Dallas, TX
Swiss Re, New York, NY
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
United Talent Agency, Los Angeles, CA
Zurich Kemper Investments, Chicago, IL (catalog)

Awards and Residencies
2014
Purchase Prize, American Academy of Arts and Letters

2009
Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant

2003-04
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant2000 Residency at the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH1997 Achievement Award and Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Maine College of Art,Portland, ME

1995-96
Fulbright Fellowship as artist-in-residence at the Bauhaus University in Weimar,Germany

1995
Residency at the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH

1993
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant

1993
Residency at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy

1990
Residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, NY

1987
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Painting

1985
Residency and full scholarship at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME

1981
Smith College Alumnae Association Scholarship for Graduate Study

Press
2017
Sierra Dickey, Nature’s Morals, Take Magazine, August 9
Antrese Wood, Art and Spirituality, with Dozier Bell, Savvy Painter, May

2014
Carl Little, Dozier Bell: Descending, Lifting, Rising, Swells, Hyperallergic, November 11
Carl Belz, Dozier Bell’s Drawings, Left Bank Art Blog, Feburary 20

Press Release
2019 to the moon and back at Richard Levy Gallery