Mamaroneck, NY - Bullseye Resource Center New York presents Nocturnal Veils, a solo exhibition of portrait-based works by Dorie Guthrie. Nocturnal Veils will be on view May 22 to August 17, 2019.
In her first Bullseye solo exhibition, New York-based artist Dorie Guthrie draws on dream-like imagery to create fictional portraits. Donning concealing makeup or animal masks, the figures exude a theatrical quality heightened by bubble glass reminiscent of Victorian picture frames. "The fictional characters are like actors loosely stitched together to create fabricated intersections," explains Guthrie. "[They are] strung together to create images or constellations that represent a loose narrative."
In addition to the convex shape of the bubble glass, the portraits themselves are slightly embossed and other objects protrude from the surface. In Hare's Breath (2019), a person wears a white rabbit mask that covers all but the mouth, which is pressed into a thin line with a strong chin and columnar neck below. An oval half-globe covers most of the piece, from which black and clear pin-like forms are strung together with black thread. These dimensional elements, connected through string or "connective tissue" as Guthrie describes it, invite the viewer to see the spaces between each work as a site for mythologizing.
Dorie Guthrie, born in 1982 in Moline, Illinois, was first exposed to glass as a medium when she stumbled upon a small glass studio in her hometown. Since graduating from Illinois State University in 2008, Guthrie has been awarded scholarships at Corning Museum of Glass, New York; Penland School of Craft, North Carolina; and Pittsburgh Glass Center. Guthrie worked on staff at Pilchuck Glass School, Washington; Brazee Street Studios, Ohio; and as a teacher’s assistant at Corning Museum of Glass; Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Maine; Bild-Werk Frauenau, Germany; and Pittsburgh Glass Center. She was selected to demonstrate flameworking at the 2013 Glass Art Society Conference in Toledo, Ohio. Guthrie is currently teaching, fabricating, and working with visiting artists at UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, New York.