Rodney Dickson, who is based in New York, has over the last intensely active decade enjoyed a global reach through his exhibitions; Brian McAvera meets the Ulster-born artist
How do you define success? How important is the matrix of nature and nurture that you were born with? Can willpower make you an artist? Would you be different – would you still be an artist – if you had stayed at home? Rodney Dickson lives in Brooklyn, New York. He is represented by a major gallery, Gasser Grunert, in New York. He has a CV which is rather longer than your arm, and in particular, he shows regularly in Asia. He can support himself by his art. Within the past ten years he has had sixteen solo painting exhibitions, including two in Tokyo and three in Saigon; fourteen ‘Happenings’, including ones in Mexico City, Rangoon, Hanoi, Beijing, New York, Belfast, Miami and Los Angeles; six Installations, all in New York; taken part in forty-six group exhibitions around the world; participated in two residencies, one in China, the other in Vietnam; organized eight workshops in Burma, Vietnam and New York; and had nine funding awards. All of this, literally, seems a world away from the boy who was born in Bangor in 1956 and brought up, during the Troubles, in Newtownards, Northern Ireland.
The realm of faith illustrated in the Book of Kells can be elusive to modern audiences; however, a new study by Bernard Meehan provides valuable insights into this peerless manuscript