Exhibitions
Catalogues
Biography
Laddie John Dill, a Los Angeles native, was born in Long Beach and attended Santa Monica High School. He graduated from Chouinard Art Institute in 1968. By the time Dill was 28, he was offered his first one-man exhibit at the Sonnabend Gallery in New York.
Dill’s talent and ingenuity have combined to make him a highly regarded national and internationally known contemporary artist. Dill’s list of exhibitions is pages long, with galleries and museums listed from such venues as Seoul, Paris, Nogoya, Japajn and Helsinki, Finland to New York, Kansas City, Seattle, and throughout Northern and Southern California. His work is owned by many private collectors and is included in the permanent collections of more than 25 museums. Even he admits to not knowing exactly how many exhibitions he has done since his first one-man show.
In 1968, while Dill was still in school, he and Chuck Arnoldi formed a small framing business, “Acme Framing Company”, and the artists engaged in many serious discussions concerning what they considered to be the death of painting.
After graduation from Chouinard, Dill said, “I needed a job but I wanted to work where I could further my education as well.” As an apprentice printer at Gemini, located in West Hollywood, Dill had the opportunity to work closely with such established artists as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Claus Oldenberg and Roy Lichtenstein.
Dialog between artists of the 1970s resulted in experiments with materials previously not considered traditional art media, such as neon, sticks, wax, cement and the relationship of those materials to each other. “It was a good healthy time for experimentation”, Dill expalins. “I was influenced by Rauschenberg, Keith Sonnier, Robert Smithson, Dennis Oppenheim and Robert Irwin, who were working with earth materials, light and space as an alternative to easel painting.”
Dill began experimenting first with neon and argon tubing, arranging the delicate, gas-filled, glass tubes into wall pieces. “I soon became interested in throwing the light against irregular surfaces such as brick walls, etc.”
Dill moved on to working three-dimensionally and filled a room in his studio with 10,000 pounds of silica sand. It was there that he mixed light and sand to create pieces which were more like painting than sculpture. “It was very much like doing a painting, except that it was on the floor, and I used shovels and brooms instead of a brush.”
During the 1970’s Dill also began experimenting with wall pieces using cement in contrast with the smooth surface of glass. Using natural pigments he incorporates, in his work, a wide range of colors from brick reds derived, from iron oxide, coal blacks from black sulphur, yellows and naturally mined cobalt blues. Combinations of these natural pigments create a variety of brilliant but still “organic” colors.
Dill considers his works, over the years, to be concentric rather than a linear chronology. “I never throw anything away,” Dill says. “When I first went to New York in the early 70’s, I lived with Jasper Johns for a few months. I noticed that he never threw anything away, image wise. He recycled images.” Dill continues, “My studio always has a range of work from different times so when I’m working on new pieces, that information comes into play. The energy in the older pieces is very different than what I’m doing now, but I don’t want to forget about that particular aspect of my work.”
According to Dill, his current wall pieces are a combination of about “16 different processes, each process being fairly short. Carving cement has almost become second nature with me. I carve quickly so that the spontaneity of the gesture is there. There is a lot of energy in these pieces because of the immediacy and there is something magical going on in the ones that work.”
Exhibitions
2016
Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside, California
Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside, California
2015
Villa Di Donato, through ART 1307 Cultural Institution, Napoli, Italy
Pio Monte della Misericordia, through ART1307 Cultural Institution, Napoli, Italy
2013
Nyehaus Gallery, New York, New York
2012
Nye+Brown, Los Angeles, California
Ochi Gallery, Ketchum, Idaho
2010
Nyehaus, New York, New York
2006
LA Artcore Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2003
Off Main Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, California
2002
Kevin Barry Fine Art, Los Angeles, California
2001
Skidmore Contemporary Art, Malibu, California
Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, California
Elena Zass Gallery, Laguna Beach, California
2000
Euro Gallery, Exhibition, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1999
Ochi Gallery, Sun Valley, Idaho
Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, California
1998
Parchman Stremmel Galleries, San Antonio, Texas
1996
Chac Mool Contemporary Fine Art, Los Angeles, California
1995
Ochi Gallery, Sun Valley, Idaho
Valerie Miller Fine Art, Palm Springs, California
1994
Andrea Marquit Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Steven Josefsberg Gallery, Portland, Oregon
Parchman Stremmel Galleries, San Antonio, Texas
1993
Ochi Gallery, Sun Valley, Idaho
1992
Stremmel Gallery, Reno, Nevada
Conejo Valley Art Museum, Thousand Oaks, California
D.P. Fong & Spratt Galleries, San Jose, California
1991
D.P. Fong Galleries, San Jose, California
Works Gallery South, Costa Mesa, California
Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1990
Works Gallery South, Costa Mesa, California
Sam Francis Gallery/ Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences, Santa Monica, California
Municipal Art Gallery/Mixografia Gallery and Workshop Los Angeles, California
Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, Washington
Sena Galleries West, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1989
Smith Anderson Gallery, Palo Alto, California
Cypress College/Fine Arts Gallery, Cypress, California
Persons & Lindell Gallery, Helsinki, Finland
Sun Gallery, Seoul, Korea
Christopher Grimes Gallery, Carmel, California
Ochi Gallery, Sun Valley, Idaho
1988
Ochi Fine Art, Boise, Idaho
Sun Gallery, Seoul, Korea
Sena Galleries West, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Mixografia Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Galeria Joan Prats, New York, New York
Ochi Fine Arts, Sun Valley, Idaho
Gensler and Associates, Los Angeles, California
1987
SITE 311, Pacific Grove, California
Fuller/ Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco
Santa Monica Heritage Museum, Santa Monica, California
Thomas Babeor Gallery, La Jolla, California
1986
James Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Charles Cowles Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Long Beach Museum Of Art, Long Beach, California
Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1985
Thomas Babeor Gallery, La Jolla, California
Union Gallery, San Jose State University, San Jose, California
1984
Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago, IL
Fuller Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco, California
Ochi Gallery, Boise, ID
Linda Farris Gallery, San Francisco, California
1983
University Art Museum, California State University Long Beach
James Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Thomas Babeor Gallery, La Jolla, California
Charles Cowles Gallery, New York
West Beach Cafe, Los Angeles: “Helium, Argon and Sand”
1982
Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, Washington
Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
James Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles
1981
Charles Cowles Gallery, New York
Peppers Art Gallery, University of Redlands, CA (catalogue)
Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago
Landfall Press Gallery, Chicago
Thomas Babeor gallery, La Jolla, California
Grapestake Gallery, San Francisco
1980
Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, Washington
Osuna Gallery, Washington D.C.
James Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles
University Art Gallery, California State University,
Dominguez Hills: “Laddie John Dill: An Installation” (catalogue)
1979
James Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles
1978
Landfall Press Gallery, Chicago
James Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles
Dobrick Gallery, Chicago
Baxter Art Gallery, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (catalogue)
Douglas Drake Gallery, Kansas City, Kansas
1977
James Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles
Grapestake Gallery, San Francisco, California
1976
Kansas State Union Gallery, Manhattan, Kansas
Dootson-Calderhead Gallery, Seattle, Washington
Seder-Creigh Gallery, Coronado, California
1975
Douglas Drake Gallery, Kansas City
James Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles
1974
James Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles
1973
Mizuno Gallery, Los Angeles
1972
Morgan Gallery, Shawnee Mission, Kansas
Sonnabend Gallery, New York
1971
Sonnabend Gallery, New York
Pasadena Art Museum, California
Portland State University Art Gallery, Oregon