VERNE DAWSON5 October - 11 November 2000This is the first solo exhibition in Europe of the eclectic New York based painter Verne Dawson. His works for this exhibition are idyllic landscapes of the ancient world depicting prehistoric peoples within a vast natural landscape. The Po River plain of Northern Italy is depicted in a primeval state, covered with trees, the sky full of birds, and scantily clad men and women who live in pile huts along the river. In the distance we see the Alps covered with snow. In one painting there is a meeting and exchange between Celts and Ligurians (ancient local populations). In "Study for Summer", the third in a series of four paintings, ancient symbols related to calendars and time-telling, especially rituals associated with quarter-day observances, reveal an ancient iconography still very present in contemporary culture and holidays, although their exact astronomical meanings have been largely forgotten. The exhibition also features a portrait of the "Barone Rampante" (the Baron in the Trees), from Italo Calvino's novel. Verne Dawson was born in 1961 in Alabama. He lives and works in New York. Since 1995 he has been showing with Gavin Brown's Enterprise in New York. In the last years he has participated in several group shows in the USA and in Europe. In 1995 he lived for three months in Milan.
