EarthMan 2

Dion Laurent

Dion Laurent’s art is one of reflection, using his lifestyle, studies and travels across his adventured world as inspiration for works ranging from painting, drawing, video and installation, to photography, performance and sculpture. Laurent reveals his hopes, suggestions, ideals and optimism in candid and passionate work that is frequently both tragic and humorous.

Laurent’s art has an immediacy and often provocative attitude that firmly locates his work in social and environmental discourse. By re-appropriating conventional icons – or ‘popular images’ – for specific intentions, Laurent’s work resonates with the environmental tenets of "wake up" and "act globally". In his EarthMan and related works, Laurent blends art and science, NASA and pop Andy Warhol, emulating the conditions of living in outer space here in the extremes of earth by combining the pioneering science and spirit of space exploration with contemporary art practice using cutting edge science, research, invention and materials in popular imagery. His work is characterized by the use of materials charged with historic and symbolic meaning, articulated in a language that references and reflects science as well as the broad realms of art.

Dion Laurent was born near Chicago in 1965. He has exhibited extensively internationally including solo and group exhibitions in England, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, Thailand, China, Brazil, Turkey and the USA. Dion' s work has been shown around the world in such diverse venues as The Art Car Museum in Houston, Texas, Texas A&M University Visual Arts Gallery, Art Forum Montreux, the Florence Bienniale, The Tennessee State Museum, performances inside and outside the Tate Modern, the Serpentine Gallery, Palais de Tokyo, Art Basel, Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Chicago, the Louvre, and Espace d'Animation des Blancs-Manteaux, Paris.

His new media works are featured on Furtherfield.org and archived on the Rhizome.org database of the New Museum, NY,NY. The "Golden Age of Barcodes" was among the video selections for FILE 05, SESI Gallery, Sao Paolo, Brazil, and FILE Rio 2006. Dion has lived, traveled and painted in Europe, Southeast Asia, the U.S. and Caribbean. He often intermingles the works from many countries with his studio works, and concentrates for several years on the development of various series, exhibits and installations. His exhibits generally are interdisciplinary installations.

Dion attended Texas A&M University in College Station and Belmont University in Nashville. He spent 7 years traveling the world with a backpack of supplies and painted, created and exhibited all along the way. He has lived and had studios around the world, including 6 years in Tokyo, across Asia, and on a small southern Japanese island in the Pacific. Laurent currently lives and works in South Central Texas and in his hometown of Houston.

Solo Exhibitions

2010/Jun-Dec AirStation Site-specific, evolving installation in the 1930's Art Deco Gas Station building adjacent to the Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston

2008/Jul Espace des Blancs Monteaux 48 rue Vielle du Temple, Paris 75004 du 4 au 20 juillet Invited for Installation, and for performances throughout Paris

2007/Jul Galerie du Tir, Geneva 6 Juin au 6 Julillet 2007 Installation 2: Earth Base 1

2007/Mar Art Forum Montreux EarthBase 1, Installation and Performances

2005-2008 EarthMan Performances and Installations, International EarthMan World Tour

2005/Jul Bayennale, Oakland - San Francisco AirPort : Installation in shipping container - EarthMan performances 2005 AirPort and EarthMan(S.F./Oakland)

2004/Nov The Art Car Museum, Houston Travel Series: Gas Pumps

2003/Oct Market Street Emporium, Nashville Bamboo: Installation

2003- The Shelter Project - O2 Air Station Web exhibit 2003 Shelter Project(Houston)

2003/Jun Poissant Gallery, Houston The Shelter Project - O2 Air Station: Installation furtherfield review - The Shelter Project

2002/Jul Private Exhibition, London Taste Modern

2002/May French Culture Center-CREA, France Zone Fumeur - With Louis Perrin

2000/Mar Visual Arts Gallery, Texas A&M University, USA All Over Our Planet

2000/Jan Vive la Vie, Tokyo Caught, Boxed and Wrapped

1999/Dec Vive la Vie, Tokyo Pachinko Series

1997/Nov Winter Street Art Center, Houston Zen: Retrospective Installation

1996/Aug Itoki Crystal Hall, Osaka From Yakushima to the World: Installation

1994/Dec Butler's Run Loft, Nashville, World Series:Travel Series

1994/Aug French Culture Center-CREA, Alsace la Terre est en Danger:European travel series

1994/Apr Foreign Correspondent's Club, Tokyo Earth Day 1994

1994/Mar Sapporo Lion Beer Halls, Tokyo Shows in 2 Ginza locations

1993/Oct Guardian Garden Gallery, Tokyo UpSideDown: Installation of Asia Series

1993/Mar United Nations University Headquarters, Tokyo Collection on loan

1992/Nov Sigma Batman Gallery, Tokyo Part 2-Beyond the Spirit Gap

992/Oct Sigma Batman Gallery, Tokyo Part 1-Earthman

1992/Aug Foreign Correspondent's Club, Tokyo World in a Room

1992/Aug Renau Gallery Space, Nagoya Meditations

1992/Jul Gallery Sky, Nagoya, Cityscapes

1992/Jul Love Collection Gallery, Nagoya Matter of Eternity II:1991-1992 Works

1991/Nov Sigma Batman Gallery, Tokyo Spiritual Journeys

1991/Mar Windows, Nashville Jamaica Works

1991/Feb Riccardo's Chicago Swaying in Contempt

1990/Dec Market Street Emporium, Nashville Wanted:Environmental Justice

1990/Nov Metro Courthouse, Nashville Spirit of the Spaceman

1990/Oct Riccardo's, Chicago The Discoverers

1990/Sep deLaurent's Chicago American Spirit

1990/Mar Windows, Nashville Garden of Peace

1990/Feb Nashville City Club Dion Laurent

1989/Oct Windows, Nashville Environmentality

1989/Aug Laurell's, Nashville TN Exhibition title: Matter of Eternity

Selected Group Exhibitions

2010/11 The Future After 20 Years, Guardian Garden Gallery, Tokyo

2010/10 The Facebook Show, Detroit Museum of New Art, Detroit

2010/9 Outside/In TEDX Charlotte Conference, Charlotte, NC

2010/9 Good Gulf, Art Car Museum, Houston

2010/5 Houston Art Car Parade, Houston AirPlane 1, First Place Prize (Art Car category)

2009/11 Guardian Garden Gallery, Tokyo

2008-2/09 Texas Green, Art Car Museum, Houston

2008/Mar FOTOFEST 2008 Art Car Museum, Houston Andy Mann Memorial Gallery EarthMan Video Loop, 7 March - 20 April

2007/Dec Art Basel Miami Beach, Packer Schopf Gallery(Chicago), Bridge Art Fair

2007/Nov Select Media Festival, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago http://selectmediafestival.org/2007/projects.html

2007/Sep Art Car Museum, Houston WAR

2007/Sep Field of Vision: Beijing Beijing New Art Projects - Factory 798 Art District - Beijing 100015 - China - Sept 15 – 30 http://www.beijing.field-of-vision.net/field/pages/01/A/07.shtml http://www.beijing.field-of-vision.net/raw/pages/Dion%20Laurent%2001.html http://www.dionlaurent.com/china.htm

2007/Mar HTTP Gallery, London DIWO : http://www.http.uk.net/docs/exhib12/Diwo_exhibition2.shtml 1st March- 1st April

2006/May Art Car Parade, Houston EarthMan on Segway, Performance with Texas Wildflowers

2006/May MANASTRE KISA FİLM GÜNLERİ , Istanbul, Turkey, Curated by Dayshülya Küpçüoðlu

2006/May New Media Art Festival(MAF 06) Bangkok, Thailand

2006/Mar Centro Cultural Telemar , FILE Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil http://www.file.org.br/

2005/Nov Guardian Garden Gallery, Tokyo

2005/Oct SESI Gallery, FILE 2005 Sao Paulo, Brazil http://www.file.org.br/

2005/Oct El Dorado Ballroom, Houston Project Storm: Katrina - Red Cross Benefit

2005/Oct Robert Miller Gallery, NY, NY Visual AIDS - Postcards From the Edge Benefit

2005/Oct Institute for New Media, Frankfurt, Germany Field of Vision: Extremes Online and Institute for New Media, Frankfurt am Main / Germany, 10 – 14 October 2005.http://www.extremes.field-of-vision.net/field/pages/05/Z/04.shtml

2005/Sep Electrofringe New Media Festival, Playhouse Theatre, Newcastle, Australia Thailand MAF05 Selection

2005/Jul Bayennale, Oakland - San Francisco Selected to create installation in shipping container

2005/Jun Gallery x, Obsession Istanbul, Turkey

2005► Web Biennial 2005 Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum

2005/May Galerie du Tir, Flower Power Genève, Switzerland

2005/Apr Montreux Art Forum Montreux, Switzerland Awarded Mention du Jury Lauréate

2005/Feb New Media Art Festival(MAF 05) Bangkok, Thailand

2005/Jan Museum of New Art, Detroit

2005/Jan Guardian Garden Gallery, Tokyo

2004/Sep Art Car Museum, Houston, Texas

2004/Jul Kulturmodell, Passau, Germany

2003/Dec Florence Biennale, Italy

2003/Nov Guardian Garden Gallery, Tokyo

2003/Mar The Affordable Art Fair with A&D Gallery, Battersea Park, London Barcoded Works

2003/Feb Guardian Garden Gallery, Tokyo 1992-2002 Hitotsubo Grand Prize Exhibit

2002/Nov Guardian Garden Gallery, Tokyo Tako Kite, UNICEF Fundraiser

2002/Oct The Affordable Art Fair with A&D Gallery, Battersea Park, London Barcoded Works

2002/2003 A&D Gallery, London Barcoded Works on Display

2002/Jun Artistes se rencontrent a' Montreuil, Paris Mesnager et ses amis

1996/Apr le Entrepot, Mulhouse, France

1995/Nov Kobe School Yard Art Project, Kobe Earthquake victim support event with Seitaro Kuroda

1995/Nov Human Rights Museum, Osaka Seitaro Kuroda Mural Project

1994/Apr Tokyo American Club, Tokyo World in a Room Project for Nishimachi Int'l School

1993/Dec Guardian Garden Gallery, Tokyo Clockworks

1992/Dec Guardian Garden Gallery, Tokyo Christmas Party Exhibit

1992/Nov Kanzaki Gallery, Tokyo Kanzaki's Choice - 3.3m2 selected works

1992/Oct Parco, Shibuya, Tokyo Fax Art Exhibit

1992/Oct Guardian Garden Gallery, Tokyo 3.3m2 Juried competition - Grand Prize winner

1992/Jan Sigma Batman Gallery, Tokyo Monkey Stock-Year of the Monkey

1991/Aug Nashville Int'l Airport Nashville Countdown 2000 - second showing

1991/May Metro Arts Commission Gallery, Nashville Countdown 2000 -Jury selected show

1990/Jul Shapelle 5.20.100, Auvers sur Oise, France 3 man project-Invited by Louis Perrin

1990/May Olin Calk Studio, Nashville Recent Sightings with Olin Calk and Dan Smith

1990/Apr Downtown, Nashville Labyrinth: Olin Calk and Associates

1990/Apr Tennessee State Museum, Nashville with Olin Calk and Dan Smith

1990/Apr Metro Arts Commission, Nashville Earth Art Exhibit: Earth Day 1990

1989/Oct Howard Finster Gallery, Pennville, Georgia Works on Display

1989/Sep Metro Arts Commission, Nashville Artrageous

2005 - 2010 Exhibitions: Installation, solo, group over 35 times. See News page: NEWS - Exhibitions and Projects click

2005-2010 Performances: Houston (Diverse Works, Art Car Museum, Foto Fest, Art Car Parade), Austin (Texas State Capital, Austin Museum of Art, Art Car Parade), Jeddo, San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge, Oakland, New Mexico, Arizona, Sonoma County, Charlotte, Nashville(Frist Center to Centennial Park) Monaco, Callas (France),London (Tate Modern, National Portrait Gallery, Serpentine Gallery, Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, 7 miles of the London Marathon, Speakers Corner, Covent Garden Piazza), Lincoln (Lincoln Catherdral and Steep Hill), Arlesey, Cambridge and Cambridge University (England), Paris (Palais de Tokyo, Musee de l'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou), Normandy American Cemetery, Geneva (MAMCO, Centre d'art Comtemporain Genéve, Mont Blanc Bridge, UN Office at Geneva), Fort l'écluse, Léaz, Ain, France, Montreux, Art Forum Montreux, Basel, Art Basel Vernissage, Seattle (City and Seattle Art Museum, Bob's Salsa party), Herbert Bayer's Mill Creek Canyon Earthworks (Kent,WA), Vancouver, BC, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Art Chicago, NEXT, Select Media Festival, Magnificent Mile, Miami (Miami Beach, Art Basel Miami Beach, Pulse Miami, Scope Miami, Rubell Family Collection, Bridge Miami, Fountain Miami) …

Artist Statement

Throughout my experiences and years of traveling to distant lands and living amongst even just a fraction of the world’s cultures, I have come to truly realize that our world is in fact a small place. As much as there is the greatness of beauty in nature and humanity, so too there are the horrors of humankind, the greed, destruction and devastation other than that which our planet’s and cosmos otherwise natural course may unleash. Human induced environmental and global climate change has no boundaries and effects the entire world population and the whole of the earth’s ecology. This is a survival issue, a political, an economic, an humanitarian, a social, and a cultural caveat for all.

I feel strongly that it is the nature of artists to reflect the here and now, and to envision the future. Give me a beautiful landscape, I’ll paint it with a bulldozer, a chainsaw, with a flower growing out the tops. I am one to always show as much as possible whether by content or reflection, and have always expected of myself the wow not of agreeing with the content but rather with the spirituality and faith that I prefer reflects the realities of our world. And rather than to react with anger and discontent towards our world dilemmas and the situation of our environment, I find myself now in efforts of optimism and idealism.

I have consciously decided to attempt to involve the solutions to our problems within the content and context of my art, both in visual and aesthetics qualities, and also in the problem solving aspects of experimentation.

I am recreating that which we destroy and create, sometimes melding environmental nature with the nature of humanity, and sometimes creating strange science of the structured chaos of our interaction with nature. It is my intent not only to reflect and symbolize the problems of our interaction with the otherwise natural world, but furthermore, to suggest and create the solutions to those very dilemmas, however fantastic and idealistic such adventures may be.

Dion Laurent