Jeremy Dickinson "Fishbowl Histories"

Sara Meltzer Gallery

poster for Jeremy Dickinson "Fishbowl Histories"

This event has ended.

Fishbowl Histories is a continuation of Dickinson's Civic Pride series of paintings begun 15 years ago, in which the artist depicted British city buses. The source for his Civic Pride paintings were photographs of British buses taken by transport enthusiasts that the artist purchased from flea markets and transport rallies; mainly 1960's and 70's views of vintage buses from the streets of UK towns. Also purchased at a Swap Meet during this time was an old 1960's die-cast Tootsietoy Greyhound Scenicruiser bus, which enthused Dickinson's collection of toy buses, the featured subject of his current exhibition.

Nicknamed the "Fishbowl" Bus because of its 6-piece curved windshield, the GM "New Look" Bus was in production for 25 years starting in 1959. The Fishbowl Buses in Dickinson's paintings are sourced from scale collector models incorporated with toy building blocks, tape and SuperBalls to construct 3-dimensional wall maps. These maps portray the aesthetic variations of liveries from different cities as well as their transit routes. The incorporation of building blocks evolved to become simplified objects that hold the vehicles in position in the maps or delineate geographic routes.

Other works in the exhibition include a group of UK 'maps' in which vintage toy double-deckers replace the Fishbowls as well as a pair of school bus paintings made of bus parts salvaged from desert junkyards. Like the old toy vehicles bought from Swap Meets and Yard Sales, these objects have a previous, albeit unknown history. Sorted alternately by color, scale or model, Dickinson's typologies of vehicles - both toy models and actual vehicles - bring to mind the minimalist tendencies of Donald Judd and the automobile sculptures of John Chamberlain. Orderly stacks of red and blue automobiles entitled "Reds" and "Blues" respectively, depict a paired down collection of vehicles arranged by color, whereas assemblages of vehicles set up quirky narratives that indicate the number of vehicles represented in the image or the "Top Ten" soccer teams in the English Premier League, identified by their associated city bus liveries.

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Schedule

from November 13, 2008 to December 20, 2008

Opening Reception on 2008-11-13 from 18:00 to 20:00

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