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Exhibition
Information
Born
in 1961 in West Bend, WI, Charles Dwyer graduated
Valedictorian from the Milwaukee School of Art & Design
in 1984. He enjoyed early recognition when the West
Bend Art Museum exhibited his work 1985. This success
led to further exposure and exploration. Soon his
creative passion led him to Europe where he was influenced
by Egon Schiele, an Austrian painter and a teacher
of Gustave Klimt, and by Sonia Delaunay, a French
painter whose palette affects art and design to this
day. Other influences from this journey included Alexei
Jawlensky, a German expressionist from the Der Blaue
Reiter group (including Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and
August Macke) and Matisse. It was during this trip
that Dwyer developed his fascination for the Expressionist
movement, the decorative arts, and restoration all
elements which were to be influential in the development
of his own unique vision. Dwyer¹s style mixes a strong
abstract and design foundation with minutely and sensitively
observed figure studies. Typically, to arrive at his
finished works, Dwyer positions his model within a
complete tableau, which includes costume design; make
up, backdrops and props. He then captures the image
using a camera with a 6² x 7² or 4² x 5² frame . This
is the starting point for an individual & idiosyncratic
exploration of the image in which color, pattern,
and art historical and pop culture references are
combined with Dwyer¹s exquisite drawing skills. In
the end, Dwyer¹s women are beautiful, enigmatic, colorful,
reflective, inviting, dazzling, but always just beyond
our reach. Dwyer achieved immediate success when his
first one-man show in New York at the 1992 Art Expo
sold out. This was followed by further success at
the 1993 Chicago Art Expo, and subsequent New York
Expos. He soon developed an enthusiastic following
throughout North America where his work is avidly
collected. During this time, as well as working on
his own creative vision, Dwyer has used his skills
to restore landmark historical locations, from a dome
in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Indiana to the murals
of the Waldorf Astoria, NYC. In a symbiotic relationship,
Dwyer has taken the skills learned from this experience
and applied them to what has been his signature portraiture
work.
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