Friday, March 31, 2023
About this Event
Recitation Hall, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19711, USA
##udartanddesignDefining Labor is an exhibition showcasing new works by Donte J. Moore and Michael Dela Dika. Each artist has an individual relationship to, and personal interpretation of, “labor,” stemming from their different backgrounds and cultures. Michael’s experience in the marketplaces in Ghana, known for Kayayo—head porters who carry the weight of goods on their heads. And Donte’s small-town Pennsylvania family, who grew up using what they could find to improvise living situations. Balancing and adapting, both artists create abstract works that simultaneously communicate growth, invention, and stability.
Exhibition Dates: March 7-31, 2023
Reception: March 7, 2023, 7:00 pm
ARTIST’S BIOGRAPHIES:
Michael Dika is a ceramic sculptor and educator living in Newark, Delaware. He has shown his works internationally and nationally in Germany- Berlin, Turkey, Delaware, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Oregon, Virginia, and Florida. His recent works can be viewed at Grounds for Sculpture- New Jersey. He is a recipient of the A. Gray Magness Fellowship Award (UD), Penland School of Craft Full Vision Residency Program Scholarship, and 2022 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Multicultural Fellow Award. Michael has published three peer review articles, the most recent article with Ceramic Art + Perception #188 issue. He also curated The Medium is the Message- The African Diaspora Story premiered at the University of Delaware which is currently traveling. Michael considers the interplay between organic and inorganic materials, tension, and balance while emphasizing human fragility, vulnerability, and exhaustion in his sculptures.
Donte J. Moore is a ceramic artist from Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. In 2014, He was entered into his first two art exhibitions – “Convergence” at the Chambersburg Council for the Arts and “Delivering the Goods” at the Pennsylvania State University. In 2015, he earned the William D. Davis Drawing Award and was nominated in 2016 to receive the APSCUF/SU award by the faculty of Art & Design at Shippensburg University. Donte received his Bachelor of Arts in Art through Shippensburg University in December 2016.
Receiving his MFA at the University of Delaware, Donte focuses his work around humans and machines. His futuristic work thoughtfully questions the loss of humanity, heart, and soul from the objects that exist around us. His creative process recognizes a concept of removing the hand from the work, exempting the incidental mark.
Both Dika and Moore obtained their Master of Fine Arts degrees in Fine Art from the University of Delaware in 2019.
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