Biography
Sophia Dixon Dillo has a Master in Fine Arts in painting from Colorado State University. She developed her interest in light as an active medium during her graduate years at CSU. For an independent study in sculpture, she made large-scale installations using light to illuminate sheer walls of fishing line. These works were pivotal to her artistic path, and eventually led her away from traditional means of painting and toward an explorative dialogue between painting, sculpture, and light.
Dillo resides in Crestone, Colorado with her husband at the Crestone Mountain Zen Center. Crestone is located on the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains overlooking the San Luis Valley – one of the most remote and dramatically beautiful areas in North America. Tucked into Piñon Pine and Juniper forest, Dillo’s studio lies beneath the rugged 14,000-foot peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The peace and seclusion of her work place influence her artwork – quiet, spatial, sensorial, and participatory.
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Dillo grew up watching her father, artist Willard Dixon, paint in his studio. She learned to draw from observation at a young age. Struck by the power and simplicity of Mark Rothko’s paintings, she began to explore abstract painting in her early artist years. Dillo has studied art at the Lacoste Ecole des Arts in Lacoste, France, received an artist residency grant from the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont, and was recently an artist resident at the Lucid Art Foundation in Inverness, California. She
has a BA in philosophy from Colorado College, and completed her academic education with a MFA from Colorado State University in 2009.
Dillo’s current work continues to focus on light. She uses minimal, all-over patterning so that the viewer’s attention can shift from the particular to the whole, and back again. Giving each part equal weight emphasizes the appearance of the piece as a whole. Quiet and subtle, her works prove difficult to capture in photographs. The works are experiential. They require the viewer’s presence in order to witness the ever-shifting effects of light and movement on the pieces.
Dillo has exhibited and is collected throughout the U.S. as well as internationally. She has participated in exhibits at venues such as the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art and the Calvin Klein Collection on Madison Avenue in New York. Her recent solo exhibit, Emergence was chosen as a “Pick of the Week” by ArtWeek.LA, and as a “Best Pick” by collector Doug Simay.
She has recently been recognized as a notable abstract artist in Colorado with an invitation to participate in Colorado Women in Abstraction at the Center for Visual Arts in Denver.
Education
2006-09 MFA, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
2001 Lacoste Ecole des Arts, Lacoste, France
1996-00 BA in Philosophy, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO
Artist Statement
I find that I have an affection for the simple as-isness of things. The white curve of a bone, the negative space created by the bend of a flower, the impression of a printing plate on white paper all capture my attention. Noticing these ordinary objects as particular reveals their unique presence and makes the mind more receptive to beauty. Beauty, to me, is when the mind reaches out to an object and returns nourished. Creating art is my attempt to honor and share this experience.
I am drawn to non-objective abstraction because it tends to strip away the layers of meaning in which our everyday lives are embedded. Non-objective images emphasize a space that exists before labeling, before thinking. Unobstructed by familiar icons, a bodily felt dialogue between the viewer and the work of art then might arise more easily.
I am intrigued with how light can be both visible and invisible at the same time. Light is always present, yet not always seen. My works play with this internal contradiction in the nature of light. I work with transparent, translucent, and reflective materials in combination with all-over
patterning to create works that incorporate light and shadow on and between the surfaces. The result is a fusing of the materiality of the art object with the immateriality of light, creating a multivalent visual experience that subtly changes as the viewer moves.
My works are contingent upon their environment, and meant to create their own space. They often have a commanding size, yet quiet and gentle presence. Their space invites viewers to step out of their usual mind of narrative thinking and into the field of mind itself. In my experience it is this field that can show us how to be intimate with the world of form, how to be nourished by things as they arise.
Artist CV
Solo Exhibitions
2015 Light & Form, Galerie Fatiha Selam, Paris, France
Forming Light – Holiday Installation, Calvin Klein Collection on Madison Avenue, New York, NY
Light & Shadow, Shumei International Institute, Crestone, CO
Light Space, The Lincoln Center, Fort Collins, CO
2014 Emergence, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2012 Translucence, Space Gallery, Denver, CO
Forming Light VI Installation and New Boxes, Winterowd Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2011 Light and Line, Ice Cube Gallery, Denver, CO
Light and Line, Vertical Arts Gallery, Steamboat Springs, CO
2010 Light Works, Ice Cube Gallery, Denver, CO
2008 Small Works, Shumei International Institute, Crestone, CO
Small Paintings, Tortuga’s, Longmont, CO
Implexities II, Bovine Theater Gallery, Denver, CO
2007 Forming Light II Installation, Morgan Library, CSU, Fort Collins, CO
Forming Light Installation, Mini Gallery, CSU, Fort Collins, CO
Implexities, Saxy’s, Boulder, CO
New Paintings, Music Gallery, CSU, Fort Collins, CO
2006 Side by Side, St. Luke’s Gallery, Fort Collins, CO
Group Exhibitions
2017 Spectral Light and Color, Samara Gallery, Houston, TX
2016 Extended Dialogue: Part 1, Space Gallery, Denver, CO
Colorado Women in Abstraction, Center for Visual Arts, Denver, CO
Abstract Group Exhibit, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Lucid Art Exhibition, Gallery Route One, Point Reyes Station, CA
SYNTHESIS – of all that went before, Averard Hotel with Galerie Fatiha, Selam, London, UK
Repetition & Reticulation, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Milwaukee, WI
2014 10 Inches of Christmas, Space Gallery, Denver, CO
Surface, Space Gallery, Denver, CO
10-Year Anniversary Exhibit, Winterowd Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
Grand Opening Exhibit, Space Gallery, Denver, CO
Unbound – Five Installations, Arvada Center for the Arts, Arvada, CO
Brave New World, Scott Richards Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
Willard Dixon & Sophia Dixon Dillo – Stillness & Activity, a Father & Daughter Show, Gallerie Citi, Burlingame, CA
2013 Lines & Grids: Works on Paper, Space Gallery, Denver, CO
The Story of the Creative, Angel Orensanz Foundation, New York, NY
30 Squared, Space Gallery, Denver, CO
2nd Annual Love + Light, A Contemporary Art and Light Exhibition, Loveland Feed & Grain, Loveland, CO
2012 Full Spectrum, Scott Richards Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
Retrospective – 11 Year Anniversary, Space Gallery, Denver, C)
Art Without Illusion, Lakewood Cultural Center, Lakewood, CO
2011 1:1, Ice Cube Gallery, Denver, CO
Art of the Real, Space Gallery, Denver, CO
(MA)chi(N)e(MADE): Organic Precision, Vertigo Art Space, Denver, CO
2010 Friends and Family – an exhibition of Ice Cube artists and their acquaintances, Ice Cube Gallery, Denver, CO
Begin Within - Three Person Exhibit, Old Firehouse Art Center, Longmont, CO
Ice Cube Group Exhibit, Ice Cube Gallery, Denver, CO
ASC Community Partnerships, Adams State College, Alamosa, CO
2009 Master of Fine Arts Exhibit, Curfman Gallery, Fort Collins, CO
Art and Science, Curfman Gallery, Fort Collins, CO
WOW Show, The Core New Art Space, Denver, CO
2008 Art and Science, Curfman Gallery, Fort Collins, CO
Art in the Attic, Lapis Gallery, Denver, CO
2007 Nextmas Show, Next Gallery, Denver, CO
Emerging Artists Exhibit, Museum of Contemporary Art, Fort Collins, CO
Open Studio Exhibit, Museum of Contemporary Art, Fort Collins, CO
Master of Fine Arts Show, Curfman Gallery, Fort Collins, CO
2005 Student Invitational, University of Xochimilco, Mexico
The Drawing Show, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO
2004 East of the Moon - Five Worlds, Lincoln Gallery, Boulder, CO
Awards/Honors
2010 5th in Popular Vote, Curate This! 2010, BECA Foundation
2006-08 Liberal Arts Scholarship, Margery Monfort Wilson Scholarship, Women’s Association Scholarship, & Graduate Grant
Colorado State University
2002 Printmaking Residency Grant, Vermont Studio Center
2001 Scholarship, Lacoste School of the Arts
Artist Residencies
2015 Lucid Art Foundation, Inverness, CA
2002 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
Publications/Bibliography
2016 The Denver Post, “’Colorado Women in Abtraction’ cuts across history” by Ray Mark Rinaldi
ArtScene, “Abstraction” Group Exhibit Review
Le Journal des Arts, “Monographie: Sophia Dixon Dillo accroche la lumiere” by Henri-Francois Debailleux
2015 Point Contemporain, “Light & Form, Sophia Dixon Dillo, Galerie Fatiha Selam”
2014 Huffington Post, “Richard Bruland and Sophia Dixon Dillo: Art Review,” by Peter Clothier
Artweek.L.A., “Pick of the Week – Sophia Dixon Dillo: Emergence”
Simayspace, “Current Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions – Doug Simay’s Best Picks” by Doug Simay
Denver Westword, “Arvada Center’s Unbound: Five Installations moves, sparkles and shines, by Michael Paglia
2013 Denver Westword, “Best Show That Was Barely There” – Best of Awards
2012 Denver Westword, “Pieces and Quiet,” by Robin Edwards
Journal North, “a trio of Tasty Dishes,” by Kate Mcgraw
2011 Denver Westword, “Shine a Light,” by Michael Paglia
Denver Westword Blog, “Light, plane, and 25 miles of fishing line with artist Sophia Dixon Dillo,” by Jef Otte
Steamboat Pilot, "Contemporary light artist shows installation in Steamboat," by Nicole Inglis
2010 Curate This! New Work, Publication selected by Helen Pheby,PhD., Curator, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK
Curate This! 2010 International Public Vote, The BECA Foundation Publication
Denver Westword, “Two new solo offerings at Ice Cube Gallery show member’s talent,” by Michael Paglia
The Crestone Eagle, “Sophia Dixon Dillo: Art that Emerges from Spaciousness and Quiet,” by Gussie Fauntleroy
Longmont Times-Call, Review by Quentin Young
2008 Shumei International Institute, Webnews
The Crestone Eagle, Article
2007 Morgan Library News, Colorado State University Website
The Coloradoan, Two Articles
2004 XEN Dharma und Sangha News, German Magazine, Featured Artist
2001 Lacoste Vernissage, Catalogue Cover Featured Artist
Selected Public Collections
Fox Rothschild, LLP Denver, Colorado
State of New Mexico, Dept. of Cultural Affairs Santa Fe, New Mexico
Four Seasons Hotel & Residence Denver, Colorado
Crestone Charter School Crestone, Colorado
The Briar Rose Bed & Breakfast Boulder, Colorado
Colorado State University, Communications Dept. Fort Collins, Colorado
Selected Private Collections
Mr. Charles Riger Houston, Texas
Mr. & Mrs. Pali Xisto Cornelson New York, New York
Mr. Tal Plaisance New York, New York
Mr. Tom Geier New York, New York
Ms. Maryanne Lataif Malibu, California
Mr. Lito Tejada-Flores & Mrs. Linde Waidhofer Crestone, Colorado
Ms. Angela Eastman Hurdle Mills, North Carolina
Mr. Jörg Gessner Lyon, France
Mr. & Mrs. Al Evans Los Angeles, Cailifornia
Ms. Dana Boldt-Garcetti Los Angeles, California
Ms. Moonhee Cho, PhD. Busan Korea
Mr. & Mrs. Michael Kantner Pasadena, California
Mr. Michael Hayes Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Mr. & Mrs. Mark Clark Wilson, Wyoming
Mr. Vidan Gonthier Boulder, Colorado
Mrs. Grace Foster Pollard Zuni, New Mexico
Mr. Daniel Welch Santa Fe, New Mexico
Mr. Andres Siegel Mexico City, Mexico
Mr. Jason Kibbey and Mrs. Elizabeth Baker Berkeley, California
Ms. Katalin Domoszlay Aspen, Colorado
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Loeffler Boulder, Colorado
Mr. Matthew Zepelin Boulder, Colorado
Mr. Earl Sutherland Crestone, Colorado
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Schneider Northridge, California
Mr. and Mrs. Steve Goldenberg West Hartford, Connecticut
Mr. and Mrs. Tom Buckner New York City, New York
Mr. and Mrs. Jay Brady Santa Fe, New Mexico
Mr. Frank Hielscher Dortmund, Germany
Mr. Richard Baker Crestone, Colorado
Mr. Martin Macaulay Crestone, Colorado
Ms. Ulrike Greenway Crestone, Colorado
Mr. and Mrs. Alan Peroutka Portland, Oregon
Ms. Sue Pendell Fort Collins, Colorado
Mr. and Mrs. Tim Bernard Denver, Colorado
Mr. Steve Odom & Ms. Alexandra Smith Alamosa, Colorado
Mr. Michael Thaut Fort Collins, Colorado
Mr. Brian DeCamp Boulder, Colorado
Mr. and Mrs. Nick Olney San Rafael, California
Mrs. Andrea Mackensen Kassel, Germany
Mrs. Beate Aldag Frankfurt, Germany
Mrs. Juditha Siebert Herrischried, Germany
Ms. Catherine Grimal-Vanstraceele Grenoble, France
Mr. & Mrs. Regis Pignal Lourmarin, France
Galleries
Samara Gallery, Houston, TX
Galerie Fatiha, Selam, Paris, France
Gallerie Citi, Burlingame, CA
Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Scott Richards Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
Winterowd Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
Professional Engagements
2015 Artist Symposium, Shumei International Institute, Crestone CO
Artist Talk, Lincoln Center, Fort Collins, CO
2013 Guest Speaker, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Denver, CO
Guest Juror, University of New Mexico Architecture Department , Albuquerque, NM
2010 Slideluck Potshow, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO
2008 Artist Symposium, Shumei International Institute, Crestone CO