“This Week in Dieu Donné: POWER PLAY Now on Display”

Dieu Donné is excited to present Power Play, an exhibition featuring works in handmade paper by Dieu Donné’s 2022 Workspace Residents: Patricia Ayres, David Baskin, Aisha Tandiwe Bell, and Anastasiya Tarasenko. With the help of Dieu Donné’s master collaborators, the residents were able to use hand papermaking to upend social norms and reinvent the meaning of the craft itself. Over the course of their residencies, each artist explored how traditional gender, racial, or economic structures of power, control, and influence could be confronted and opposed with little more than some pulp and pigments. Using pulp painting, casting, mold making, embedding, and blowouts, among other techniques, the included artists found diverse ways to utilize the transformative power of paper in constructing new critical frameworks.

Patricia Ayres is a New York-born artist whose work explores themes of isolation, separation, confinement, and conformity. She typically works in sculpture and mixed media, using clothing, latex, fabric, and padding to create works that evoke the sensation of being wrapped in otherworldly garments. In her residency, she examined the structures and iconographies of Catholicism, shaping sheets of pulp into semi-recognizable religious forms and embedding materials from Catholic ceremony – breaking down modes of religious authority and control. 

David Baskin is a sculptor, installation, and visual artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. His work often reflects on the intersection between capitalistic materialism and artistic aesthetic using common, everyday objects to craft sprawling sculptures and intricate installations. He pulled from the language of consumerism, re-casting and re-forming purchased decorative objects to elevate his materials and transform mass-market, machine-made design into hand-made, conceptually rigorous fine art.

Aisha Tandiwe Bell is an artist best known for her ability to create myth and ritual from mixed-media art and installations that utilize performance, video, sound, and music to create a magical experience. At Dieu Donné, she translated her painting and ceramic practices into hand papermaking, building multi-colored, layered, and textured faces, forms, and patterns to reveal the constantly shifting masks one wears when navigating hostile environments, people, or stereotypes of race, sex, and class. 

Anastasiya Tarasenko focuses on using art as a method of social critique through quirky, vibrant scenes that evoke fairy tales and playful illustrations. She took a painterly approach to the possibilities of pulp painting, creating layered scenes of fantastical figures inspired by folk tales, fantasy, and history to comment on gender roles, politics, and contemporary culture.

While the opening reception may have already passed, it’s not too late to see the fruits of these artists’ labor for yourself! The works will be open through the rest of the summer, closing at the end of August in preparation of Dieu Donné next exciting showcase. You can request to view the gallery anytime between 10am - 4pm, Monday through Friday. Please fill out the form below in order to schedule your visit today!

“Artists Alliance Inc. Dual 2024 Workspace Residency Program Opens for Applicants”

On May 13, Dieu Donné announced the start of its Dual Workspace Residency Program with Artists Alliance Inc. The program will provide one emerging New York State-based visual artist with a studio residency at Artists Alliance Inc. through the LES Studio Program alongside a collaborative papermaking residency at Dieu Donné. With almost 50 years of paper-making experience, Dieu Donnè is happy to introduce the chosen artist to the world of hand paper-making, providing one-on-one mentorship, five days of studio time with a dedicated collaborator, and a $500 stipend. The artist will also receive a fully-funded personal studio space in the Lower East Side with 24-hour access as well as materials for art production from the AAI. The residency will conclude with a group exhibition, where the artist's work will be showcased alongside other rising creatives from around the city. 

“After 33 years of the Workspace Residency Program, Dieu Donné is excited to partner with Artists Alliance Inc. and further support the New York City artist community by offering the unique opportunity to explore the potential of hand papermaking while receiving precious access to studio space,” comments Serena Trizzino, Executive Director of Dieu Donné. 

Jodi Waynberg, Artists Alliance Director, adds, “The LES Studio Program was founded in 2003 to alleviate the financial burdens of maintaining a studio-based practice, and to create a supportive environment that encourages experimentation. Dieu Donné is an ideal partner in this intention, providing residencies that support artists in challenging the boundaries of their existing practice.”

Applications are accepted May 22 - June 30, 2023.

Learn more about the 2024 Workspace Residency.

Above: 2023 Workspace Orientation. Artist Baris Gokturk (left) and Master Collaborator Tatiana Ginsberg (right).

Header Image: 2023 Workspace Orientation. Cecile Chong (left) and Katie Bell (right).

"Lab Grant Resident Samuel Levi Jones Opens Solo Exhibition at Galerie Lelong & Co."

Dieu Donné Lab Grant Resident Samuel Levi Jones’ latest exhibition at Galerie Lelong & Co., Conscious Intuition, explores the value of demolition and the innovative possibilities it presents through the art of paper-making.

Samuel Levi Jones, The Library of Alexandria, 2023
Pulped and cast encyclopedia pages, metal shelves, rug
Two bookshelves, each: 83 ⅛ x 109 ½ x 24 ½ in (211.1 x 278.1 x 62.2 cm)
Books, each approximately: 9 x 11 x 2 in (22.9 x 27.9 x 5.1 cm)
Image courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co.

Jones is known for challenging social structures and historical representation in his work by repurposing materials typically associated with authority, power, and information. His exhibition features works of art formed from pulped encyclopedias, law books, history textbooks, and US flags, calling into question what value these objects hold once they have been unraveled and rearranged.

Jones was able to accomplish this transformation by repurposing traditional paper-making itself, dissolving his raw materials into pulp which is then used to craft his artistic visions. He presents a unique approach to the paper-making process that focuses on the act of deconstruction as much as it focuses on the art of creation. The final results range from colorful pulp-based paintings to slabs of molten paper that dominate the space, their former selves occasionally eking out in the form of fragmented images, scrambled text, and recognizable elements.

Jones’ sculptural installation, The Library of Alexandria (2023), was created in collaboration with master papermakers at Dieu Donné, in addition to numerous other pieces throughout the exhibit.

Master Collaborator Tatiana Ginsberg and Samuel Levi Jones in Dieu Donné Studio

Conscious Intuition is on view from May 11 – June 17, 2023 at Galerie Lelong & Co.

"Dieu Donné Launches Museum Donation Program"

Andy Mister, Silence (Single), 2014

Dieu Donné is pleased to announce the inauguration of the Dieu Donné Museum Donation Program! This new initiative expands Dieu Donné’s educational mission beyond the walls of our studios––introducing curators, institutions, and the general public to the art of hand papermaking. Through targeted donations from Dieu Donné's nearly 50 years of production to art museums around the world, we aim to bolster works of handmade paper in institutional collections to expand knowledge of and access to hand papermaking as a fine arts medium.

B. Wurtz, Untitled, 2013

 To date, Dieu Donné has donated works by artists including Lesley Dill, Alison Knowles, Paul Wong, B. Wurtz, and many others, to museums including the Asheville Art Museum, NC; Grinnell College Museum of Art, IA; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, MO; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, TN; Art Museum of the University of Memphis, TN; Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz; University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, IA;  Turchin Center of Art, Appalachian State University, NC; Williams College Museum of Art, MA; and Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, NJ.

Donated pieces will enter the permanent collections of museums, will be included in current and future exhibitions, and will be used in tandem with the educational arms of these institutions to provide students and communities with opportunities to experience and learn about handmade paper artworks.

To learn more about the Dieu Donné Museum Donation Program or to get your local art museum involved, please contact Eliana Blechman, Director of Curatorial Affairs and Partnerships, at eblechman@dieudonne.org.