The Sarah Doyle Women's Center Gallery held an opening reception Friday for a new exhibition of works by Bob Dilworth, visiting lecturer in visual art, entitled "A Work in Progress." Dilworth's work will be on display at the Gallery through Feb. 22.
The majority of Dilworth's pieces in the show consist of painted strips of canvas that have been cut out and glued in a collage-like manner on another piece of canvas. Each of the 11 pieces is titled with the materials used, with names such as "Acrylic Print Cutouts on Canvas Glued to Canvas," "Monoprint on Arches" and "Monoprint on Stonehenge." In the seven pieces with cutouts, the artist layers radiant blues and greens with bright reds and oranges on the abstractly shaped cutouts.
On some of these pieces Dilworth incorporated black shapes which, in addition to emphasizing the layering of the bright colors, also seemed to make reference to an ominous human form.
Dilworth also showcased four monoprints, which were more subtle in both size and color. While these works were also abstract, they seemed to be more about the color relationships than the layering of colored material. One particularly striking piece consisted of vibrant blue spots against a gold field.
The artist previously worked figuratively to explore themes of race, culture, heritage and the way America handles ethnicity, according to Dilworth's Web site. "Origin is an on-going theme in my work," he wrote to The Herald. "Where one comes from, how one learns to engage the world, how one is seen and how one sees the world through the eyes of race, culture or ethnicity are crucial to fully realizing one's goal and destiny in life."
It is difficult to tell whether he is continuing to explore these themes in these new works because the titles focus only on processes, rather than content, and the works seem entirely abstract. Perhaps titles that indicated the nature or meaning behind his creations would leave viewers less oblivious to the message he wishes to convey.
Nonetheless, Dilworth's layered process and use of bright colors make the pieces visually striking. "Every work of art becomes a field for a fictional narrative," he wrote. "Anyone can superimpose their history as well as an updated narrative onto this field."
Dilworth has shown extensively, especially in Rhode Island, in both solo and group exhibitions, including a one-person exhibition at the Newport Art Museum in 2006.
