Plans
Dustyn Bork
The Batesville Area Arts Council presented Plans, an exhibition by Dustyn Bork, at the BAAC Gallery on Main (226 E Main St) January 31 – March 11, 2023.
Artist Statement
The paintings, collages, and floor piece in this exhibition, plans, are all derived from Batesville where I work, create, and call home. The color palette and textures reflect the rich layered history of our city (the oldest continuously occupied in Arkansas). Their surfaces have the potential of familiarity however they are intentionally abstracted to suggest “place” without limiting the viewer to one specific “space”.
A building starts with a plan. In our lives we also make plans. Our plans can change, and the life of a building can change. These plans are all a unique experience; the places become built, not when they are constructed, but when they are lived in. The pieces in this exhibition and the places they represent reveal a portrait of the built environment in Batesville and the lives of those who inhabit it.
Plans
Biography
Dustyn Bork is an artist working primarily in printmaking and painting. Bork was born in Monroe, Michigan, and relocated to Batesville, Arkansas to teach studio and art history courses at Lyon College, where he currently serves as Professor of Art. He earned his Master of Fine Arts from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan. Recent solo exhibitions include at the Beverly and Sam Ross Gallery at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tennessee; the Arts and Science Center in Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Material Art Space in Memphis, Tennessee; the Thea Foundation in Little Rock, Arkansas; and at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis. In 2016, Bork won the prestigious Visual Arts Fellowship for Painting awarded by the Arkansas Arts Council. His work has been exhibited in group exhibitions nationally and internationally including at the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art in South Korea; Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio; the Torpedo Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia; at the University of Southern Mississippi Museum of Art in Hattiesburg, Mississippi; at the International Print Biennial of Duoro Portugal; and the Hunterdon Museum of Art in New Jersey. Bork has participated in artist residencies at the Mark Rothko Art Center in Daugvapils, Latvia, The Franz Masereel Centre in Kasterlee, Belgium, The MIRA artist residency in Martignano, Italy, Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson City, Vermont. His work appeared in New Americans Painting Southern Issue no. 148. Bork is married to artist Carly Dahl, the executive director of the Batesville Area Arts Council, and has two children: Paige and Aiden Bork, who are both pursuing
art careers.
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