October 3 – November 1, 2013, Ferguson Center Art Gallery, The University of Alabama
Opening Reception Thursday, October 3, 5-7 p.m. in The Ferg
In his own quiet and understated way, Bill Dooley has kept up a breakneck pace of production for the past
25 years at The University of Alabama. From time to time, he reveals the paintings and drawings he continually creates behind the scenes, while producing exhibitions for renowned artists ranging from Robert Rauschenberg and William Christenberry to Chakaia Booker and Mel Chin.
Now is one of those times. The exhibition of new work Dreaming Local Over and Under features Dooley’s small oil-on-canvas paintings, drawings in oil pastel, graphite, gouache, watercolor and gesso, and studies for future pieces.
Vicki Rial, exhibitions coordinator at the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, an artist and a longtime observer of Dooley’s art work, notes that while his palette is bright, his paintings have an unexpectedly subtle effect on the viewer. “His work is not always what it seems on first approach. It is very likable; the colors and texture are quite beautiful, but the longer you look, the more you see layered through and between the paint. This aspect of layering asks the viewer to pay attention to what is going on beneath as well as on the surface.”
Dooley writes about his processes and his approaches: “I lean toward indefinite sources such as memory and glance that can be thought of as unresolved, undeclared, perhaps a little undone. My artwork seems to tighten the visual information to a point of breaking. An odd result is usually a work that is quirky and clumsy…rarely does platonic beauty follow.”
“Nature continues to be a worthy subject for me. The desire to have some of relationship with it, while romantic, is also sensible. I have learned to pay attention to the cycles and patterns that define the seasons, the weather, time, and nearly everything for which we have a definition. It is possible to build paintings and various forms of artwork using practices and methods not unlike those used by insects and birds. I have found a relationship between materials and method that offers purpose to my art making.”
William Dooley received his M.F.A. from the University of South Carolina. He joined The University of Alabama’s Department of Art and Art History in 1988 and serves as associate professor and director of the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art. Dooley’s own works of art have been included in more than 75 regional and national exhibitions, including more than forty juried competitions. His works are in numerous private collections and museums including the South Carolina State Museum at Columbia; The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC; the University of South Carolina, Columbia; and the Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art at The University of Alabama.
Since 1988, Dooley has directed and curated a schedule of changing exhibitions at the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art for such internationally acclaimed artists as Gregory Amenoff, Ida Applebroog, Chakaia Booker, Mel Chin, William Christenberry, Cora Cohen, Jack Earl, Vernon Fisher, Cheryl Goldsleger, Jasper Johns, Lee Krasner, Sally Mann, Ed McGowin, Elizabeth Murray, John Newman, Brian Novatny, Robert Rauschenberg, Tony Scherman, Carrie Mae Weems, William T. Wiley, Deborah Willis and Thornton Willis. He has contributed essays for exhibition catalogs and expanded checklists on George Baselitz, William Christenberry, Vernon Fisher, the Paul R. Jones Collection, Samuel Mockbee, Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison, Judy Pfaff, Ilona Rich, Carrie Mae Weems and Thornton Willis, and he has served as Alabama Regional Editor for Art Papers. Since 2002, Dooley also has contributed his expertise in exhibits management to Rural Studio, an architectural design/build program at Auburn University, serving first as a visiting project reviewer and then as advisory board member. Dooley teaches art museum practices, drawing and graduate seminars in studio research.
For further information, please contact William T. Dooley, wtdooley@ua.edu | www.wtdooley.com or Rachel Dobson, rachel.dobson@ua.edu