Hollins University’s 2019 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence is renowned for her images of family members, co-workers, friends, and herself – intense, honest, larger-than-life, close-range portraits.
The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum is featuring an exhibition of Diane Edison’s work in the Ballator-Thompson Gallery from January 17 through April 28.
Edison says she “came around to the idea of painting portraits as a way of finding myself,” and creates her art using color pencil on black paper. The intricately detailed works draw the viewer in for scrutiny, and offer an extreme psychological and physical depiction of the people within her circle. She earned her B.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts, New York, in 1976 and her M.F.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986. She has been a member of the Lamar Dodd School of Art faculty since 1992. Her college textbook, Dynamic Color Painting for the Beginner, was published in New York City and the United Kingdom in 2008 and has since been produced in Spanish and Chinese language editions.
Edison’s New York exhibitions have included the Forum Gallery, DC Moore Gallery, and the Tatischef Gallery. Her work has also been shown in the American Embassies in Russia and Chad; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea; and other venues in the U.S. and abroad. She is a past recipient of the Anonymous Was a Woman Award and the Georgia Women in the Arts Recognition Award.
Established by an anonymous donor in 1997, the endowed Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence program allows Hollins to bring a nationally recognized artist to campus each academic year. In residence during the spring semester, the visiting artist creates work in a campus studio and teaches an art seminar open to all students.
Located in the Wetherill Visual Arts Center, the Wilson Museum is open Tuesday – Sunday, noon – 5 p.m., and Thursdays, noon – 8 p.m. Admission is always free.
