Lucy Dodd

Tulip petals, ground hematite, black tea, yeast cultures, rain water: Lucy Dodd paints with myriad materials from her everyday life and travels. In spontaneous gestures on unconventionally shaped canvases, she mixes references to art history and mythological symbols like stars and moons. The artist prefers to install her paintings like sculptures, free-standing or leaning rather than hanging flat on a wall, to encourage viewers to examine all aspects and perspectives of her work. Drawing on her background in design, Dodd also frequently presents immersive installations that resemble staged interiors, with dramatic entrances and rope-knotted furniture. 

Dodd was born in New York in 1981. She studied at the Center College of Design in California before returning to New York to pursue fine art at Bard College. Due to her inherently physical and even performative painting techniques, Dodd’s work has been connected to the history of action painting and its well-known practitioners like Jackson Pollock and Sam Francis. She has also been connected to lyrical abstractionists like Helen Frankenthaler. Dodd has shown widely in the Untied States and beyond, at institutions including Kunstverein Schattendorf, the Whitney Museum of American Art and White Columns. In 2011, she collaborated with artist Sergei Tcherepnin to present a performance as part of Performa in New York. 

-       Lé, 2019, Atlantic sea water from Cape Cod, squid ink, Agua de Florida, Wakame, spirulina, chlorella, indigo, herb water, fish silver powder, peony petal water, lapis lazuli, malachite, cavasanite, mica, cochineal, phosphorescence, hematite, selenite, tulip petal water, daffodils, peony, tyrian purple, and pigment on canvas, 182 x 384 inches (462.3 x 975.4 cm), newly commissioned work at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston 

-       Guernika, 2014, Spanish hematite, Miami rain water and lavender oil, cochineal, kombucha SCOBY, Rota squid ink, earth from Monasterio de Suso, Aracena, Rio Tinto, la Aldea-Bejes and Guernika, chamomile and pomegranate from Segura de Leon, lichen from Sierra de Gata, yerba maté, Rio Tinto water, mica, spirulina, mixed pigments and Tyrian purple on canvas, 11’ 5” x 25’ 6” (3.5 x 7.8 m), a painting that references Picasso’s Guernica, held in the Rubell Family Collection

-      Storms R Born N Eagles Land, 2016