Dashiell A. Snow (July 27, 1981 – July 13, 2009) was an American artist based in New York City.
[Roberta Smith]
"Dash Snow, New York Artist, Dies at 27"
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', July 14, 2009. Snow's photographs included scenes of sex, drugs, violence, and art-world pretense; his work often depicted the decadent lifestyle of young New York City artists and their social circle.
Early life and education
Dashiell A. Snow was born July 27, 1981 to Taya Thurman and Christopher Snow. He grew up on the
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...
in New York City.
Snow and his siblings, Maxwell and Caroline, are descendants of the de Menil family, who are known for their philanthropy and collection of American art.
At thirteen, he was admitted to
Hidden Lake Academy
Hidden Lake Academy was a therapeutic boarding school in Dahlonega, Georgia, United States, in operation from 1994 until 2011. In 2006, it was the subject of legal action over accreditation. The school filed bankruptcy in 2009 and shut down in 2 ...
, a
residential treatment center
A residential treatment center (RTC), sometimes called a rehab, is a live-in health care facility providing therapy for substance use disorders, mental illness, or other behavioral problems. Residential treatment may be considered the "last-ditch ...
specializing in the treatment of children with
oppositional defiant disorder
Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is listed in the DSM-5 under ''Disruptive, impulse-control, and conduct disorders'' and defined as "a pattern of angry/irritable mood, argumentative/defiant behavior, or vindictiveness". This behavior is us ...
.
[
][Sean O'Hagan]
''The last days of Dash Snow''
''The Observer'', September 20, 2009.
Career
As a teenager, Snow began taking photographs to document the places he might not remember the next day.
In the 1990s, he was a member of the IRAK
graffiti
Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
crew; the name of the group was meant to reference shoplifting, or otherwise called, racking.
In order to sign his work, Snow used the
tag "SACE" or "SACER".
His first solo photography exhibition took place in 2005.
In 2006, ''The Wall Street Journal'' profiled Snow and nine other emerging American artists, including
Rosson Crow
Rosson Crow (born 1982) is an American artist, best known for her large-scale paintings. She is based in Los Angeles, California.
Biography
Crow grew up in Dallas, Texas. She moved to New York City in 2000 and graduated with a B.F.A, from School ...
,
Ryan Trecartin
Ryan Trecartin (born 1981) is an American artist and filmmaker currently based in Athens, Ohio. He studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating with a BFA in 2004. Trecartin has since lived and worked in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Ph ...
,
Zane Lewis,
Barney Kulok,
Jordan Wolfson, and
Keegan McHargue.
The same year he was included in the
Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition ...
.
In 2007, Snow and Dan Colen co-created an installation of shredded phone books in
Jeffrey Deitch's SoHo gallery; the exhibit was named “Nest” or “Hamster Nest”.
In his later
collage-based work, Snow used his
semen
Semen, also known as seminal fluid, is an organic bodily fluid created to contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads (sexual glands) and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize the female ovum. Sem ...
as a material applied to or splashed across newspaper photographs of police officers and/or other authority figures.
Family and personal life
Snow's parents were Christopher Snow and Taya Thurman. His maternal grandparents were Buddhist scholar
Robert Thurman
Robert Alexander Farrar Thurman (born August 3, 1941) is an American Buddhist author and academic who has written, edited, and translated several books on Tibetan Buddhism. He was the Je Tsongkhapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at ...
, the father of actress
Uma Thurman
Uma Karuna Thurman (born April 29, 1970) is an American actress and former model. She has performed in a variety of films, from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action films. Following her appearances on the December 1985 an ...
, and artist Marie-Christophe de Menil.
He was the great-grandson of
John de Menil
John de Ménil (January 4, 1904 – June 1, 1973) was a Franco-American businessman, philanthropist, and art patron.Helfenstein, Josef, and Laureen Schipsi. ''Art and Activism: Projects of John and Dominique de Menil''. Houston: The Menil Coll ...
and
Dominique de Menil
Dominique de Menil (née Schlumberger; March 23, 1908 – December 31, 1997) was a French-American art collector, philanthropist, founder of the Menil Collection and an heiress to the Schlumberger Limited oil-equipment fortune.Helfenstein, Josef ...
, the founders of the
Menil Collection and Museum located in
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
, Texas.
At the age of 18, Snow married
Corsican artist
Agathe Aparru Snow; the couple later divorced.
In July 2007, his partner, Jade Berreau, gave birth to the couple's daughter, Secret Midnight Magic Nico.
Death and legacy
On July 13, 2009, Snow died of a drug overdose while a guest of Lafayette House in New York City.
[Roberta Smit]
"Dash Snow, East Village Artistic Rebel, Dies at 27"
''The New York Times'', July 15, 2009.
In 2016, his family sued
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...
after they refused to remove the
tag "SACE" from the graffiti-themed interior design used in some European and Asian restaurants; the case was later dismissed.
A documentary film about the life of Dashiell Snow, ''Moments Like This Never Last'', was released in 2020.
Publications
*''Slime The Boogie''. Berlin/Los Angeles: Peres Projects, 2007.
*''Gang bang at ground zero.'' New York City: self-published, 2007. Zine. Produced in collaboration with Christopher Snow.
*''You Can't Drink It If It's Frozen: the Dash Snow Purple Book.'' 2007.
Olivier Zahm,
Purple Fashion Magazine, and Janvier, 2007.
*''The End of Living, the Beginning of Survival''. Berlin: Contemporary Fine Arts, 2007. .
*''I'd rather drink muddy water, and sleep in a hollow log.'' Self-published / Contemporary Fine Arts Berlin, 2007. . Includes "Skeletal love" by Raina Hammer.
*''God Spoiled a Perfect Asshole When He Put Teeth in Yer Mouth''. Berlin/Los Angeles: Peres Projects Holdings, 2007. . Published on the occasion of an exhibition at Peres Projects, Los Angeles.
*''Nest''. New York City:
Deitch Projects
Jeffrey Deitch (pronounced ''DIE-tch'';Mike Boehm (January 12, 2010)L.A.'s MOCA picks art dealer Jeffrey Deitch as director''Los Angeles Times''. born 1952) is an American art dealer and curator. He is best known for his gallery Deitch Projects ...
, 2008. With
Dan Colen
Daniel Colen (born 1979) is an American artist based in New York. His work consists of painted sculptures appropriating low-cultural ephemera, graffiti-inspired paintings of text executed in paint, and installations.
Early life and education
Bor ...
. . Published on the occasion of an exhibition at Deitch Projects, New York City, 2007.
*''In the Softest Grey Petals of the Bomb, Lay Your Finger Across my Lips.'' Los Angeles: Peres Projects, 2009. .
*''Polaroids''. Berlin/Los Angeles: Peres Projects, 2009. .
*''I love you, stupid!''. New York City: D.A.P., 2012. . Cologne: Walther König, 2013. .
*''Love Roses''. New York City: Karma, 2015. .
*''Selected Works From 2001 To 2009.'' Zurich: Nieves; Geneva: Innen, 2014.
**Second edition. Zurich: Nieves; Geneva: Innen, 2020. .
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
*''Silence is the only true friend that shall never betray you,''
Rivington Arms, New York City, 2006. Collages.
*Rivington Arms, New York City, 2006. Found materials, collages, sculptures and assemblages.
Group exhibitions
*''USA Today,''
Royal Academy, London, 2006
*
Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition ...
,
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...
, New York City, 2006
*''Babylon: Myth and Truth,''
Pergamon Museum
The Pergamon Museum (; ) is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. It was built from 1910 to 1930 by order of German Emperor Wilhelm II according to plans by Alfred Messel and Ludwig Hoffmann in Stripped Clas ...
, Berlin, 2008. Included collages by Snow.
*''Exercises on Democracy'', a traveling exhibition, White House Biennial, Athens, Greece, 2013–
*''Materialized: New Ameriacn Video and...,'' Bergen Kunsthall, Norway, 2008. Included ''Hamsters Nest'' by Snow. Curated by Kathy Grayson.
*''Photographs. The Royal Collection of Graphic Arts,''
National Gallery of Denmark
The National Gallery of Denmark ( da, Statens Museum for Kunst, also known as "SMK", literally State Museum for Art) is the Danish national gallery, located in the centre of Copenhagen.
The museum collects, registers, maintains, researches and han ...
, Denmark, 2010
Collections
Snow's work is held in the following public collections:
*
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...
, New York City
*
Brooklyn Museum, New York City
*
The Watermill Center[Piece Wont Go to Bid]
, Blouinartinfo, July 20, 2009. Accessed December 7, 2017.
See also
*
27 Club
References
External links
Dash Snow Interview in ''Interview'' magazine* Denis Kovalev
"Dash Snow" ''Sgustok Magazine'', 2010
Peres Projects, Berlin Los AngelesDash Snow Appearing in Graf Core 2000
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snow, Dash
Culture of New York City
American graffiti artists
Deaths by heroin overdose in New York (state)
20th-century American photographers
1981 births
2009 deaths
Artists from New York (state)
20th-century American painters
American male painters
Drug-related deaths in New York City
20th-century American male artists