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John Knight Bio
JOHN KNIGHT
Statement My current paintings are centered around common plants and their environments. They also describe a dialogue between the sky and the earth. As the plants send out flowers and shoots, growing higher, they become the go-between connecting the earth and sky, and the plants themselves intermingle with their surroundings. I have let these often small weeds become monumental in my paintings, running the whole vertical length of my canvases, uniting solid ground below with atmosphere above. I have encountered these plants in fields, beaches or rocky shores here in Southern Maine . On an aesthetic level, I notice the color and shape of radiating petals on a flower with a specific number and formation, but observing the whole plant closely and identifying it through books opens up other meanings relating to its use as food, medicine, or textile/building material. I welcome the diversity of tenacious weeds that grow without conscious planting or landscaping. Their suprises contrast with gridded plots of daffodils or tulips, and the vast, uniform orchards or crop fields that fill abundant but homogenous produce bins in supermarkets across the country. In my studio, forms of clouds, stones, plants, rolls of hay, or bodies of both land and water are malleable and change to fit my compositions. However, the subjects and their environments that I create are always informed by my sense of the different places I have lived or spent time. A century plant I painted in New Mexico relates to a sow-thistle I see and paint in Maine . A tower of limestone blocks I painted in a quarry in Indiana relates to natural rock formations I saw and painted in New Mexico and to the shape of the rocky coast of Southern Maine . The name and identity of the forms change, but certain shapes and compositions repeat through many of my paintings. In the studio I work to generate the sense of scale I experienced standing with my easel planted in a large outdoor space with the ground sweeping up under my feet and clouds rushing overhead. I get back to experiences I have had walking out into certain outdoor spaces and being struck by a feeling of harmony in the forms surrounding me.
EDUCATION: M.F.A. 1998 Painting American University B.F.A. 1994 Painting Indiana University
OTHER EDUCATION: 1997 Accademia Di Belle Arte , Perugia , Italy 1992 Indiana University overseas summer study program in Florence , Italy
TEACHING EXPERIENCE: 2000 - 2003 Instructor, Maine College of Art Continuing Studies, Portland , Maine 2002 Visiting Artist, Western New Mexico University , Silver City , New Mexico 1999 - 2003 Instructor, Portland Adult Education , Portland , Maine 2001 Instructor, University of Southern Maine Continuing Education, Portland , Maine 2001 Instructor, Portland Museum of Art Studio Sampler Program, Portland , Maine 2000 Landscape Drawing Workshop, Gila National Forest , New Mexico 1996 - 1998 Teaching Assistant, American University
ARTIST RESIDENCIES: 2003 - 2004 Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown , Massachusetts 2002 Artist in Residence, Acadia National Park , Maine 2001 Carina Residency, Monhegan , Maine 1999 The Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz , New York 1994 The Vermont Studio Center , Johnson , Vermont
EXHIBITIONS AND GALLERY REPRESENTATION: * = solo exhibition * Land and Soul ,
* Variations on a Thistle
2004 What's the Story? Narrative Art from the Watkins Collection,
2004 2003-2004 Fine Arts Work Center Visual Fellows, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts
2004 Future Masters,
Landscapes and Plants,
2003 Portland Museum of Art Biennial
2002 - 2005 Maine College of Art Auction ,
2002 * Weeds
2001 - 2003 Spring for Life Art Auction , Portland , Maine
2000 New Work by John Knight, Jenny Moore, and Gloria Steiger
1999 * Growing: Drawings and Prints by John Knight
1999 New work by John Knight, Andrew Robertson, and Gloria Steiger
1999 Works on Paper
1998 John Knight - Paintings, Prints, and Drawings
1998 Point of Departure : An exhibition of thesis works by American University MFA Candidates
1998 One Leg Up: Artwork by Tom Bunnell, John Knight, and Aaron Yassin
1997 American University M.F.A. Students Group Show
1996 New Work from the Gila: Paintings and Drawings by Chad Colby, John Knight, and Chris Sheek,
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Busa, Christopher, “Visual Artists in Winter Residence” Provincetown Arts, Vol. 18, annual issue 2004/05, 60-61 Harrison, Sue, “Slipping Through the Cracks” Provincetown Banner , February 26, 2004 , cover page, Arts and Entertainment Knowles, Maggie, “Best Weeds in Town” The Portland Phoenix , March 11-17, 2005 , 14
AWARDS: 2003 Winter Fellowship, Fine Arts Work Center , Provincetown , Massachusetts 1998 JoAnn Crisp-Ellert Graduate Purchase Prize Award (Recipient through American University , Washington , D.C.) 1996 -1998 Full fellowship, American University graduate painting program 1993 Student Art Purchase Prize, Indiana University
COLLECTIONS: National Park Service, Acadia National Park , Maine Watkins Collection, American University , Washington , D.C. Registrar's Office, Indiana University collection of Andres Verzosa, Aucocisco Gallery, Portland , Maine collection of Woodbury Dana, Portland , Maine (private)
PUBLIC ART: outdoor mural, Latino Economic Development Corporation, 2316 18th St., Washington D.C. (60” x 30” mural completed 1998) |
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