reception Friday August 27, 5-7pm
Bennington Museum is pleased to present boundless: new paintings and mixed media works by Dusty Boynton, on view August 21 - December 31, curated in collaboration with 571 Projects. A selection of recent paintings and mixed media monoprints by this accomplished artist will be on view for the first time in Southern Vermont, drawing viewers in to her energetic and emotional worlds and introducing them to a compellingly eccentric cast of characters. Highlighting her freely spontaneous, intuitive practice, Boynton is fond of stating “I leave my head at the [studio] door.” More frequently choosing joy over sadness, her figures interact with each other and the viewer in unexpected and often humorous ways. The spare lines that define her awkwardly and joyfully human figures give them touching vulnerability.
Dusty Boynton’s paintings and works on paper have the spontaneous immediacy and seeming naiveté of childlike work and are often described in these terms. While they carry within the seriousness of child’s play, they are most certainly not childish. As Robert Ayer’s has noted in ARTNEWS, “Dusty Boynton’s art isn’t as easy and casual as it appears. Her characters−human, animal, and hybrid−are childlike and scrawled, often staring out from the picture surface. To invest these figures, as Boynton does, with individual personalities and emotional weight, as well as with the ability to relate psychologically to one another, is a real artistic feat.” She approaches each new picture intuitively, as an improvisation, letting her memories and creativity flow, with no preconceived idea of what she wants it to look like or even the particular story she wants to tell. Boynton’s deep experience of a long and rich life, filled with joy and sorrow, humor and gravity, and above all, love, pours into her paintings.
Born in Connecticut where she grew up on a farm, Boynton has had a long and illustrious career, and her work has been shown extensively in New York City and beyond, including solo exhibitions at The Delaware Contemporary (Wilmington, DE), Burlington City Arts (Burlington, VT), The Current (formerly The Helen Day Art Center, Stowe VT); and recurring shows with Denise Bibro Fine Arts (New York, NY). Her work is in numerous private and public collections.
