Harry Dodge (born 1966) is an American sculptor, performer, video artist, professor, and writer. His solo exhibitions have included works in New York, Los Angeles and Connecticut, while his group exhibitions have taken place at

The New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Scho ...

, 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 ...

, the

Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fe ...

and the

Hammer Museum The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...

, among others. He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017 and is the author of the book ''My Meteorite: Or, Without the Random There Can Be No New Thing'' (2020). He lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Early life

Dodge was born in 1966 in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California. Dodge earned an MFA degree in Fine Art in 2002 from the Milton Avery School of the Arts at

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic ...

Career

In the early 1990s, Dodge was one of the founders of and curators for the San Francisco community-based performance space, Red Dora's Bearded Lady Coffeehouse. During this time Dodge wrote, directed, and performed several evening-length, monologue-based performances, including "Muddy Little River" (1996) and "From Where I'm Sitting (I Can Only Reach Your Ass)" (1997). In the late 1990s, Dodge co-wrote, directed, edited and starred in (with

Silas Howard Silas Howard is an American director, writer, and actor. His first feature film was ''By Hook or by Crook'' in 2001 with Harry Dodge, and he earned an MFA in directing at UCLA. He began directing episodes during the second season of ''Transparen ...

) a narrative feature film, ''By Hook or By Crook'', which premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

(2002), and received five Best Feature awards at various film festivals. Dodge also performed in the 2000

John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his Cinema of Transgression, transgressive cult films, including ''Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), ''Pink Flamin ...

film ''

Cecil B. Demented ''Cecil B. Demented'' is a 2000 black comedy film written and directed by John Waters. The film stars Melanie Griffith as a snobby A-list Hollywood actress who is kidnapped by a band of terrorist filmmakers; they force her to star in their underg ...

''. From 2004 to 2008, while continuing to make solo work, Dodge formed half of a video-making collaboration with artist

Stanya Kahn Stanya Kahn (born 1968) is an American artist. She graduated magna cum laude from San Francisco State University and received an MFA in 2003 from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College. Kahn lives and works in Los Angeles, ...

. Since 2008, Dodge has focused on sculpture, drawing, video, and writing. His interdisciplinary practice is “characterized by its explorations of relation, materiality and ecstatic contamination”. ''Artforum'' says his “dense, idea-rich” works are “designed to hold ideas of individuality and multiplicity in tension and to create spaces of dynamic slippage between the whole and its parts.” Dodge teaches in the School of Art at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and in sculpture program of the Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

*2019 Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, New York *2018 ''Works of Love'', JOAN, Los Angeles, California *2017 ''Mysterious Fires'', Grand Army Collective, New York, New York *2015 ''The Cybernetic Fold'', Wallspace, New York *2013 ''Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy'', Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut *2013 ''Frowntown'', Wallspace, New York

Group exhibitions

* 2019 ''Avengers--Someone Left the Cake Out in the Rain'', Gaga and Reena Spaulings Fine Art, Los Angeles, California * 2017 The

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sc ...

, New York City, New York * 2014 ''Made in L.A.'',

, Los Angeles, California * 2008

, New York City, New York * 2009 ''Code Share: 5 continents, 10 biennales, 20 artists'', CAC Vilnius, Lithuania * ''Videonale 12,'' Kunstalle Bonn, Bonn, Germany * 2009 ''Reflections on the Electric Mirror: New Feminist Video'',

Brooklyn Museum of Art The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

* 2008 ''California Video''

, Los Angeles, California; * 2007 ''Between Two Deaths'', ZKM/Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany * 2007 ''Eden’s Edge''

, Los Angeles, California * ''Triples: Harry Dodge, Evan Holloway, Peter Shelton'', The Approach, London, England

Collections

Dodge's collaborative work with Stanya Kahn, ''Can't Swallow It, Can't Spit It Out'', is part of the permanent collection of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

in New York. Dodge's solo work is also included in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the

Awards

In 2017 Dodge was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2012, he received an Art Matters grant. His co-directed film ''By Hook or By Crook'' received several awards, including Best Feature, Audience Award at Outfest Los Angeles Lesbian & Gay Film Festival; Best Screenplay, Grand Jury Prize at Outfest Los Angeles Lesbian & Gay Film Festival; Best Feature, Jury Prize at Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival; Best New Director, Jury Prize at Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival; Best Feature, Audience Award at Mardi Gras Festival, Australia; Best Feature, Audience Award at South by Southwest Film Festival; Best Feature, Jury Award at Philadelphia Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.

Personal life

Dodge is married to the author

Maggie Nelson Maggie Nelson (born 1973) is an American writer. She has been described as a genre-busting writer defying classification, working in autobiography, art criticism, theory, feminism, queerness, sexual violence, the history of the avant-garde, ae ...

, with whom he has a child. He has an older child from a previous relationship. Dodge uses the pronoun “he,” but has long expressed disinterest in gender designations. He identifies as a butch. In a 2017 interview with ''Lunch Ticket'' he discusses an interest in Adorno’s theory of “non-identity,” or “non-language knowings.”

Bibliography

References

External links

Official web site

Interview with Harry Dodge with Sarah Sulistio

Review of “Frowntown” in Artforum

Review of “Works of Love” in Artforum

Review of “User” in Artforum

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dodge, Harry 20th-century American sculptors 1966 births Living people LGBT film directors American LGBT artists Artists from San Francisco LGBT people from California Bard College alumni Non-binary artists Transgender artists California Institute of the Arts faculty 21st-century American sculptors American non-binary writers