Moira Dryer (1957–1992) was a Canadian artist known for her abstract paintings on wood panel.

Early life and education

Dryer was born in Toronto, Canada; her mother was architect Pegeen Synge and her father Douglas Dryer was a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto. She was the youngest of three children. She attended

Sir George Williams University Sir George Williams University was a university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It merged with Loyola College to create Concordia University on August 24, 1974. History In 1851, the first YMCA in North America was established on Sainte-Hélène S ...

in Montreal before moving to the United States to attend the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in Manhattan. At SVA she was a student of Elizabeth Murray, and she ultimately became a friend and a studio assistant to Murray. She also became a studio assistant to Julian Schnabel. Dryer graduated from SVA with honors in 1981. Before working full time as painter, Dryer was a freelance prop and set maker, and set designer for the avant-garde theater company Mabou Mines.

Personal life

In 1982, Dryer married fellow painter and SVA classmate Victor Alzamora. Alzamora died of a congenital heart condition in 1983 at the age of 29.

Exhibitions

Dryer had her first solo exhibition in 1986 at the John Good Gallery. Subsequent exhibitions include shows at Mary Boone Gallery, Manhattan; Fred Hoffman Gallery, Santa Monica, California; Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston; Jay Gorney Modern Art, Manhattan; and recently at Eleven Rivington, Manhattan. During her lifetime, Dryer had one-person exhibitions at the

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is an art museum and exhibition space located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America. The museum was founded as the Boston Museum of Modern Art in 1936. Since then it has gone through multiple na ...

(1987), and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She was the focus of a Museum of Modern Art Focus exhibition curated by former Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture Robert Storr.

Solo and two-person exhibitions

2014
''Moira Dryer Project'', Eleven Rivington, New York 2000
''Moira Dryer'', curated by Gregory Salzman; Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO (8 Sept.-4 Nov., 2000); Art Gallery of York University, Toronto (29 Nov.-4 Feb., 2001); Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (29 March- 20 May 2001); The Contemporary Museum, Baltimore (17 June- 26 August 2001) 1998
''Moira Dryer & Shirley Wiitasalo'', Greene Natfali Gallery, New York 1997
''The Point of Departure: Moira Dryer/ Jessica Stockholder''; Gallery of Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS Gallery 400, University of Illinois at Chicago 1995
''Estate Paintings''; Jay Gorney Modern Art, New York 1993
''Estate Paintings''; Jay Gorney Modern Art, New York
''Projects 42: Moira Dryer''; The Museum of Modern Art, New York 1992
Mary Boone Gallery, New York 1991
Fred Hoffman Gallery, New York
Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston 1990
Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston
Mary Boone Gallery, New York 1989
''New Work: Moira Dryer''; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco 1988
John Good Gallery, New York 1987
Hoffman Borman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston 1986
John Good Gallery, New York

Group exhibitions

2017 "Fast Forward: Painting from the 1980s," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Jan 27-May 14, 2017 2013
''Four Women and a Kosuth'', James Barron Art, New York, September 13–22, 2013
''I, You, We'', Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 25–September 1, 2013 2011
''The Indiscipline of Painting'' Tate St. Ives, Cornwall, touring to Warwick Art Centre (2011/12)
''Circa 1986'', The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, New York
''A Painting Show'', Harris Lieberman, New York 2008
''Charismatic Abstraction'', James W. and Lois I. Richmond Center for Visual Arts, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, October 30–November 25, 2008 2007
''Two Years'', Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 17, 2007 – February 17, 2008 2006
''Women’s Work: Paintings 1970–1990'', Greenberg Van Doren, New York
''Hunters & Gatherers: The Art of Collecting'', The Shore Institute of the Contemporary Arts (SICA), Asbury Park, New Jersey 2005
''The Painted World'', MoMA PS1, New York 2001
''As Painting: Division and Displacement'', curated by Philip Armstrong, Laura Lisbon and Stephen Melville; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio
''Side Show'', curated by Augusto Arbizo; Lawrence Rubin-Greenberg Van Doren-Fine Art, New York 2000
''D'', Sandra Gering Gallery, New York, curated by Robert Nickas 1999
''The Stroke: An Overview of Contemporary Painting'', curated by Ross Bleckner, Exit Art, New York 1998
Jay Gorney Modern Art, New York 1997
''Coming Home Again'', curated by Jeanne Siegel for the 50th Anniversary of the School for Visual Arts; Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY
''After the Fall: Aspects of Abstract Painting since 1970'', curated by Lily Wei; Visual Arts Gallery, New York 1996
''Some Recent Acquisitions'', Museum of Modern Art, New York
''Playpen & Corpus Delirium'', Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich
''Reconditioned Abstraction'', curated by Martin Ball; Forum for Contemporary Art, St, Louis
''Painting In An Expanding Field'', organized by Saul Ostrow; Usdan Gallery, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont
''Natural Process'', Center Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisberg, PA; Williams Center for the Arts, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania 1995
''Pittura-mmedia'', Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, Austria
''A Selected Survey, 1983-1995'', Pat Hearn Gallery, New York 1994
''New York Abstract Painting'', Salvatore Ala Gallery, New York 1993
''Italia – America: L’astrazione ridefinita'', Galeria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, San Marino 1992
Abstract Painting 1992; Schmidt Contemporary Art, St. Louis 1991
''Moira Dryer, Roni Horn, Sherrie Levine'', Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston 1990
''Gallery Group Exhibition'', Lawrence Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia 1989
''A Decade of American Drawing: 1980-89'', Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Santa Monica 1988
Lawrence Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia
''The Other Painting'', Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Gallery, Toronto
''The Image of Abstraction'' The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Tom Cugliani Gallery, New York
''In Side'', Barbara Kraków Gallery, Boston
''School of Visual Arts Alumni Exhibition'', Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
Pat Hearn Gallery, New York
''Ironic Abstraction'', University of South Florida Art Galleries, Tampa 1987
''Stimulation'', John Good Gallery, New York
''Grand Design'', Proctor Art Center, Bard College, Annandale-on Hudson, NY
''True Pictures'', New York Studio School, New York
''Jennifer Bolande, Moira Dryer, Annette Lemieux'', Lawrence Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia 1986
''Selections'', Artists’ Space, New York
''Paintings/Objects'', Postmasters Gallery, New York
''Recent Abstract Painting'', John Good Gallery, New York
Cash/Newhouse Gallery, New York 1985
''New American Abstraction'', John Good Gallery, New York 1984
''New York, New Work'', The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York 1983
Limbo Lounge, New York 1982
''Visionary Landscape'', P.S. 122, New York
YYZ Gallery, Toronto
''White Room'', White Columns, New York 1981
Visual Arts Gallery, New York 1980
Proposal Gallery, Baltimore
Group Material, New York

Public collections

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
The Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama
The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
The High Museum of Art, Atlanta ('Picture This', 1989)
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Maramotti Collection, Reggio Emilia, Italy
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey
The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Later life

Moira Dryer died of cancer at her home in New York City on May 20, 1992.Vulture, "Seeing Out Loud: Jerry Saltz on the Brief, Great Career of Moira Dryer" January 30, 2014
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dryer, Moira 20th-century Canadian painters 1957 births 1992 deaths Canadian women painters Canadian contemporary painters Abstract painters Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Sir George Williams University alumni 20th-century Canadian women artists School of Visual Arts alumni Canadian abstract artists 20th-century women painters