BIO
SHORT BIO:
Dudley Zopp (she/her} was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1941. She received her BA and MA in modern foreign languages from the University of Kentucky in 1963 and 1965, followed by postgraduate work in painting and drawing at the Hite Art Institute, University of Louisville, 1986-1991. Zopp is a trans-disciplinary artist who uses installation art practices, painting and drawing, and artist’s books to mirror her deep engagement with the natural world and her concern for our responsibilities as humans on a changing planet. Dudley’s early work explored the paleo-geological foundations of her environment, and since moving to Maine in 1996, she has increasingly focused on the intersections of studio practice and habitat restoration.
LONG BIO
Dudley Zopp (she/her) was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1941. As a small child, she began making art as a way to understand the natural world, and continued that practice throughout high school, at the same time that she discovered foreign languages as a parallel way of understanding the world and its social structures. She received her BA and MA in modern foreign languages from the University of Kentucky in 1963 and 1965 respectively, followed by postgraduate work in painting and drawing at the Hite Art Institute, University of Louisville, 1986-1991. She began a professional career as a tapestry weaver in 1976, and it was her need to create better tapestry cartoons that led her back to a serious study of visual art at the Hite Art Institute, to a desire to understand the human form in space, and then to Maine where she has lived since 1996.
Dudley’s early trips to Quoddy Head in easternmost Maine and a residency in Newfoundland, both locations with exposed geologies, resulted in a series of installations addressing the phenomenon of glacial erratics and the recognition that landscapes are written in a code that is difficult but not impossible to understand. Erratics (Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport 1997) was followed by an Erratics installation at the Portland Museum of Art Biennial (1998), Reading the Landscape (University of Maine/Farmington 1998), Bog (Galerie Hertz, Louisville 1999), Erratic Locations (University of Southern Maine 2006), Walking in Time (Waterfall Arts, Belfast Maine 2007), Ground Underground (University of Maine 2014), and Stones on the Move (Beech Hill, Rockport Maine 2015).
Concurrent with the installations, Dudley produced solo exhibitions of paintings at The Center for Maine Contemporary Art (2004), Coleman Burke Gallery (New York 2011), June Fitzpatrick Gallery (Portland Maine 2014), and Moremen Gallery (Louisville 2019) and participated in numerous group exhibitions.
Her installation piece Bog Dig, 100 birch panels incorporating both text and imagery, was featured in the exhibition Maine in America at the Farnsworth Art Museum (Rockland, Maine 2000-2002) and is now part of the museum’s permanent collection. In 2002 she received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Maine Arts Commission.
In contrast to her paintings and installations where the human presence is only hinted at, Dudley uses her artist’s books as a vehicle for examining our moral and ethical responsibilities toward the natural world, and offers ways to navigate the experience of being human. Is There Something We Can Do is a daybook that integrates the process of making art in a specific landscape with quotations from Buddhist sutras. The Mystery of Five takes a long look at the biological origins of life in the context of Shaivist mysteries. In an ongoiing series of ekphrastic books, she uses mechanical structures such as the Jacobs Ladder to explore intersections of text and imagery. Dudley’s books are housed in the collections of Yale University, Bowdoin College, the University of Kentucky and Baylor University, among others.
Dudley’s engagement with habitat restoration means that she spends an increasing amount of time outdoors in collaboration with the multitude of native and non-native species that inhabit her Lincolnville property. While this work feeds into her studio work and is the logical extension of her earlier installations, it is equally important that she see herself as representing a humanist ecology in which, to parapharase Gilles Clément, humans live in concordance with the prevailing diversity of life forms.
Lincolnville, Maine 2023
Email dzopp [at] dudleyzopp.com to request more information.
CV
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Gilsland Farm Audubon Center, Falmouth, Maine, Dudley Zopp
2019 Moremen Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky, Landscapes, Vessels and Jars
2015 Coastal Mountains Land Trust, Rockport, Maine, Stones on the Move
2014 University of Maine, Ground/Underground
June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, Maine, Oysters
2012 12 Gallagher Lane, San Francisco, California
2011 Coleman-Burke Gallery, New York, Erosions
2008 Aarhus Gallery, Belfast, Maine
2007 Waterfall Arts, Belfast, Maine, Walking in Time
2006 University of Southern Maine, Lewiston-Auburn, Erratic Locations
2004 Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, Maine Discovering the Physical
2000 Davidson & Daughters, Portland, Maine
1999 Galerie Hertz, Louisville, Kentucky, Bog
1998 University of Maine at Farmington, Reading the Landscape
1997 Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Erratics
1996 Spalding University, Louisville, Kentucky, The Rumpelstiltskin Letters
1995 Bellarmine College, Louisville, Kentucky, Dudley Zopp: Site Specific
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Spliced Connector, Shim Art Network, Sense Making
2022 Midcoast Maine Book Arts, Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill, Maine, Unspoken Word
2021 Cove Street Arts, Portland, Maine (3 Person), Eaux, the Water
Rochester Public Library, New York, International Art of the Book & Paper
Shim Art Network, Artsy.com, Echolocations
2020 Shim Art Network, Artsy.com, Spliced Connector Summer 2020: Under the Skin
Camden Public Library, Camden, Maine, Structure and Narrative
2019 Haas Arts Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, Science as Art in Artists’ Books
2018 Washington Art Association, Washington Depot, Connecticut,
Side by Side: Process and Collaboration
Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine, On a Different Wavelength
2016 University of Maine at Farmington, Residue
2015 Hite Art Institute, University of Louisville, 99 Prints from the Hite Print Collection
2014 Waterfall Arts, Belfast, Maine, The Blue Marble Project
2013 George Marshall Store Gallery, York, Maine, Silent Spring: the Enduring Legacy
2012 Institut Dijboutien des Arts, Djibouti City, Djibouti., International Mix
2011 June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, Maine, Drawing the Line #11
2010 Silvermine Guild Arts Center, New Canaan, Connecticut, 61st Annual Art of the Northeast
2009 University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor, Abstract New England: Six Perspectives
2008 Hewar Art Gallery, Baghdad, Iraq, Merhaba, Baghdad!
2007 Paper New England, Hartford, Connecticut, New England Now
2006 Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Maine Printmakers 1980-2005
2005 Union Institute and University, Montpelier, Vermont, Contemporary Drawing 2005
2004 The 2004 Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Biennial Exhibition
2003 University of Southern Maine, The Figure Revealed
2002 Deutsche Bank, New York, Text/Textile
2001 Arts Center at Kingdom Falls, Montville, Maine, Art in Nature
2000 Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, Maine in America: Contemporary Selections
1999 Portland Museum of Art Biennial
1998 University of Maine at Machias, What Women Experience
1997 Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Paper Works
1996 Spring Street Gallery, Belfast, Maine
1995 Artswatch, Louisville, Kentucky, Collage, Assemblage, Montage
1994 Zephyr Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky, Dudley Zopp and Julie Schweitzer
1993 Louisville Visual Art Association, Louisville Paper Invitational
1992 Muscarelle Museum of Art, Williamsburg, Virginia., American Drawing Biennial III
1991 Louisville Visual Art Association, Water Tower Annual
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
21c Museum Hotels
Agnes Scott College
Bates College Museum of Art
Baylor University, Moody Memorial Library
Bowdoin College, Hawthorne-Longfellow Library
Brown University, Rockefeller Library
Colorado College, Tutt Library
Farnsworth Art Museum
Hite Art Institute
Maine Women Writers Collection, University of New England
Pennsylvania State University Library
PNCBANK Kentucky
Portland Museum of Art
University of Chicago Library, Illinois
University of Kentucky, Margaret I. King Library
University of Louisville, Margaret M. Bridwell Art Library
University of Maine at Presque Isle
University of Maine, Raymond K. Folger Library
University of Rhode Island Library
Yale University, Haas Family Arts Library
SELECTED AWARDS/GRANTS//RESIDENCIES
2019, 2015 Farm Dover, Shelbyville, Kentucky, Independent Residencies
2015 Maine Humanities Council, Grant
2014 Maine Arts Commission, Grant
2013 La Dogana, Farnese, Italy, Residency
2011 Can Serrat Centro de Actividades Artisticas, El Bruc, Spain, Residency
2009 Maine Arts Commission, Grant
2003 Maine Arts Commission, Grant
2002 Maine Arts Commission, Fellowship
1997 Pouch Cove Foundation, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Residency
1996 Spalding University, Louisville, Kentucky, Residency
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2022 Johnson, Carla Rae, “A Studio Visit with Artist Dudley Zopp,” The Artistic License
2021 Arango, Jorge S. “At Cove Street Arts, exhibits on oil and water make an absorbing mix,” Portland Press Herald
2019 Beem, Edgar Allen, “Maine in the Abstract,” The Maine Arts Journal: The UMVA Quarterly
Keel, Eli, “A conversation between cities, continents, places and objects: Dudley Zopp’s ‘Landscapes, Vessels and Jars,”
Insider Louisville
2018 Stephens, Kay, "Artist Dudley Zopp finds inspiration from trees in own backyard," PenBay Pilot
2015 Ernest, Dagney, “Earth works,” Courier Publications
Little, Carl, “Ground/Underground,” Art New England
2014 Keyes, Bob, “A sedimental journey: Dudley Zopp’s fascination with geology,” Maine Sunday Telegram
2013 Burns, Christopher, “Artist Dudley Zopp explores geology, painting and language,” The Maine Campus
2011 Wethli, Mark, “Erosions, Geologics and Terrains: the Geomantic Art of Dudley Zopp,” Catalog Essay
2009 McAvoy, Suzette, “The World Down Under,” Maine Home + Design
2008 Brown, Bruce, “Betwixt & Between: Color, Line and Texture,” Catalog Essay
2007 Hoffman, Hank, “Paper, scissors and rock,” Connecticut Art Scene
2004 Keyes, Bob, “CMCA biennial awash in painterly glow.” Maine Sunday Telegram
2003 Garner, Marvin P. and Bruce Brown, Dudley Zopp: Paintings, Exhibition Catalog
2002 Maline, Sarah, 11 Artists, Exhibition Catalog
2001 Antworth, Jeremy. Dudley Zopp: Installation Artist, Video
1999 Words and Images., Ed. Narayan Nayar
1998 Maline, Sarah, “The Significant Landscape," Dudley Zopp: Installation Artist, Catalog Essay
1998 Portland Museum of Art Biennial: Behind the Scenes Behind the Art. TV Feature
1997 Lord, Tracy. “Dudley Zopp Walks a Found Landscape.” Feminist Times
1996 Jacobson, Mary. “Artcentric, Indeed: An Interview with Dudley Zopp.” LEO
1992 Boyd, Julia, et al. Exhibition 280: Works on Walls, Huntington Museum of Art Exhibition Catalog
EDUCATION
Post-Graduate Studies in Drawing and Painting, Hite Art Institute, University of Louisville
M.A., French, University of Kentucky, Lexington, 1964; Haggin Fellowship for Graduate Study; Delta Phi Alpha, German Honorary Society
B.A.,With High Distinction and Honors in Modern Foreign Languages, University of Kentucky, Lexington.1963; Phi Beta Kappa; Phi Sigma Iota, Romance Languages Honorary Society