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DAVID
DOWLER |
 American, born 1945
From silver to glass to steel, David Dowler has returned to metal—but this time as a sculptor, entirely on his own terms. He began his professional life as a designer-silversmith for Samuel Kirk & Sons, spent much of his career as innovative, world-renowned sculptor and designer for Steuben Glass, and is now working primarily in steel in his Corning, New York. The son and grandson of architects and a distant relative of the late poet Marianne Moore (he owns and has read all her books), Dowler reflects his heritage as well as his own abundant gifts and depth of experience through the shapes, surfaces, and symbols in his sculptures. Now he works in steel, creating primarily one-of-a-kind pieces, because he finds it “a very expressive material.” He is drawn to the metal’s strength, power and seemingly limitless possibilities of color and texture, as well as form. He focuses on making “objects with meaning that people can have in their homes,” sized to sit on a table and invite inspection and introspection. His subjects are the stuff of ordinary life, largely geometric structures. “ It is a welcome challenge to work with such tough material an artist must be strong enough to overcome the metal’s natural resistance to change” says Dowler. “Even the weight of it is fascinating” Dowler continues. “I make sculpture about things,” he says. “Part maquette and part finished piece, my sculpture is a distillation and interpretation of contemporary events with tinges of romance, distress, and failure. By making my work evocative and personal, I hope to influence the exchange between people and objects—things—their possessions. My new work employs color and construction detail to underscore the illusory qualities of a world in which they are a part”. As for the physical process, Dowler collects and incorporates some found objects but finds plenty of character in new metal that he cuts welds and fabricates by himself without assistants in his Corning studio. If the work becomes to unwieldy he has a ten year working relationship with a very capable metal worker in Elmira NY. This direct contact with the material has formed a bond between material and artist that though challenging is central to Dowler's work. Dowler’s works have been exhibited in museums worldwide and are in the permanent collections of many, from the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris to the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art in Sapporo, Japan. MUSUEM COLLECTIONS Arnot Art Museum - Elmira, NY Brooklyn Museum of Art – Brooklyn, NY Corning Museum of Glass – Corning, NY Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art – Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan Musée des Arts Décoratifs - Paris, France Musée de Design et d’Arts Appliqués Contemporains (mudac)- Lausanne, France Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art - Kansas City, Missouri SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2017 Cut & Welded: solo exhibition of metal works, Exhibit A, Corning, NY 2009 About Things: solo exhibition of paintings and sculpture Atrium Gallery Corning Community college, Corning NY 2006 In Plein Site: solo exhibition of painting and sculpture, West End Gallery, Corning, NY 2002 Thirty Year Retrospective of Sculpture, Paintings and Production Designs, Corning Incorporated Gallery, New York, NY 2000 Inaugural Sculpture “Innerlight,” commissioned for new Steuben Gallery, The Gallery at Steuben Glass, New York, NY 1997 Structure Revealed: Glass Sculpture by David Dowler, Steuben Gallery, New York, NY 1990 Image and Framework: Sculpture in Crystal, Heller Gallery, New York, NY 1980 David Dowler: Cast Crystal Sculpture, Steuben Gallery, New York, NY SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2004 Corning on Canvas: exhibitor and curator, Houghton Gallery at 171 Arts Center, Corning, NY 2003 69th Regional Exhibition, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY Painting at Yellow Bird Gallery, Newberg, NY 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, Atrium Gallery, Corning Community College, Corning, NY 1999 SOFA Chicago, Chicago, IL 1990 New Art Forms, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL Heller Gallery, New York, NY 1988 The Steuben Project, Heller Gallery, New York, NY Pride of Place Setting, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY 1987 Glass 87 Japan, Tokyo and Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan 1986 Mostly 3D, Rockwell Museum, Corning New York 1985 Designed and Made for Use, American Craft Museum, New York, NY 1982 Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Habitat Gallery, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan 1981 Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Washau, WI The Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, New York Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan 1979 Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France AWARDS 1982 “Progressive Architecture Magazine,” Furniture Design Award FEATURED IN ARTICLES, REVIEWS, FILMS, and CATALOGS Contemporary Glass Art, mudac, 2006 “New Paintings and Sculpture,” The Leader, 2004 “The Artist Eye,” Derrick Ek, The Leader, 2004 Steuben Glass: An American Tradition in Crystal Revised, Mary Jean Madigan, 2003 “Art Show,” Star Gazette, Wilson 2003 Structure Revealed: Glass by David Dowler, Thomas Hoving, 1997 The Steuben Project: Sculptures in Crystal, Heller & Geldzahler, 1988 “Keeping Tradition Exciting,” Jeremy Ehrenreich, The Leader, 1997 The Steuben Designers: Glass Art 1991, Waggoner, 1991 Contemporary Glass, Suzanne Frantz, 1989 David Dowler at Steuben and Alone: New Work 1988, Nancy Dickinson “Steuben Breaks the Mold,” Sargent/Moore. Connoisseur “Splendid Steuben, in a Dramatic Light,” Paul Hollister, New York Times, 1988 “Transformation,” a film by Mediaworks, 1987 Progressive Architecture, May 1982, p. 160 Steuben Glass: An American Tradition in Crystal, Mary Jean Madigan, 1982 “A Portrait of America,” Turner Broadcasting Glass in Japan: Japan Artcrafts Association, 1981 “Assignment in Glass,” A film by Elliott Erwitt, 1978 EMPLOYMENT Artist/Designer, Steuben Glass, 1972 – 2000 Artist/Designer, Samuel Kirk & Sons 1969 – 1972 Independent Artist, always EDUCATION Syracuse University School of Art, Syracuse, NY BFA with honors, 1969 |
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