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Deborah Dancy

{{Short description|African-American artist (born 1949)}}

{{Infobox artist

| name = Deborah Dancy

| image =

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| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1949}}

| birth_place = Bessemer, Alabama

| death_date =

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| nationality = {{flagicon|US}} American

| known_for = Painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, artist's books

| training = Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Ill. - BFA (1973); Illinois State University, Normal, Ill. - MS in Printmaking (1976), MFA in Painting (1979)

| movement = Contemporary art, abstract art

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| awards = 1985 - YADDO Fellowship
1997 - John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship

}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2019}}

Deborah Dancy, also known as Deborah Muirhead{{Cite web|url=http://nnamdicontemporary.com/artists/deborah-dancy/|title=Deborah Dancy|date=2016|website=N'Namdi Contemporary Miami}} (born 1949),{{Cite web|url=https://artsbma.org/collection/sarah/|title=Sarah - Deborah Muirhead|website=Birmingham Museum of Art|date=July 13, 2022 }} is an American painter of large-scale abstractions in oil; she is also a printmaker and mixed media artist.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mfa.org/collections/object/untitled-482179|title=Untitled|date=December 23, 2018|website=Museum of Fine Arts Boston}} Her work is also known to encompass digital photography. In 1981, she began to teach at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, where she taught painting for thirty-five years until her retirement in 2017.{{Cite journal|last=Mercer|first=Valerie J.|display-authors=etal|title=Examining Identities|journal=Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts|volume=86|issue=1|pages=66–87|jstor=43492326|year=2012|doi=10.1086/DIA43492326|s2cid=222812759}}{{Cite web|url=https://benton.uconn.edu/2017/07/18/marking-35-years-the-work-of-deborah-dancy/|title=Marking 35 Years: The Work of Deborah Dancy |website=benton.uconn.edu|publisher= The William Benton Museum of Art|last=Perosino|first=Bruno|date=July 18, 2017}} She has received awards such as a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Women's Studio Workshop Studio Residency Grant, and a YADDO fellowship.

Early life and education

Dancy was born in 1949 in Bessemer, Alabama. She was born into an African-American family who treasured their heritage and ancestry. Dancy received her BFA degree from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1973, as well as an MS in printmaking and MFA in painting from Illinois State University, in 1976 and 1979, respectively.

Career

Her painting "Seed Travel" appeared in the Stamford Museum and Nature Center.{{Cite news|title=In Stamford Exhibit, Art Imitates Life|last=Raynor|first=Vivian|date=May 21, 1989|work=The New York Times}} Dancy taught painting at the University of Connecticut, Storrs for thirty-five years, before retiring in 2017.

Dancy’s works are in the permanent collections of numerous galleries and academic institutions, some of which include the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Dancy was also nominated for a Connecticut Children's Book Award for Illustration for The Freedom Business as an illustrator and co-author.{{cite journal |last1=Lindsay |first1=Nina |title=The Freedom Business |journal=School Library Journal |volume=54 |issue=10 |date=October 2008 |page=173 }}

Dancy was the art director and the illustrator of The Freedom Business, a book by her friend Marilyn Nelson.{{Cite journal|url=https://imagejournal.org/article/conversation-marilyn-nelson/|title=A Conversation with Marilyn Nelson|journal=Image|issue=69|interviewer=Jeanne Murray Walker}}

Public collections

Awards and honors

Bibliography

  • Armstrong, Kathleen, et al. "Children's Literature Reviews: 2008 Poetry Notables". Language Arts, vol. 86, no. 6, 2009, pp. 468–472. JSTOR
  • "Book Design, Digital Imaging and Photography". Clarellen, Clarellen and Cary Graphic Arts Press, New York, 2001{{Cite web|url=http://www.clarellen.com/digitalbookdesign.html|title=Clarellen - Digital Book Design and Publishing|website=www.clarellen.com|access-date=2019-04-01}}
  • Danza, Emmie. "Deborah Dancy, Chasing the Light". Gallery Artist Deborah Dancy Reviewed on The Drawing Center Column, "Annotations", The Drawing Center, June 27, 2013
  • Edwards, Jeff. “‘It’s a Constant Struggle to Keep the 'Thingness' at Bay’: An Interview with Deborah Dancy". Artpulse, 2015{{Cite web |url=https://art.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1528/2016/02/DEBORAH-DANCY.pdf|website=art.uconn.edu |title=Archived copy |access-date=April 1, 2019 |archive-date=April 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401223304/https://art.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1528/2016/02/DEBORAH-DANCY.pdf |url-status=dead }}
  • "Front Matter". African American Review, vol. 41, no. 3, 2007{{Cite journal |jstor = 3042351|title = Front Matter|journal = African American Review|volume = 30|issue = 2|pages = 161–164|year = 1996}}
  • "Flatfile Collection, Queen Bea". Artspace New Haven. 2016{{Cite web|url=https://artspacenewhaven.org/flatfiles/deborah-dancy/|title=Deborah Dancy|website=Artspace New Haven|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-01|archive-date=April 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401205930/https://artspacenewhaven.org/flatfiles/deborah-dancy/|url-status=dead}}
  • King, Leslie. "Gumbo Ya Ya : Anthology of Contemporary African-American Women Artists". Hathi Trust Digital Library, Midmarch Arts Press, 1995{{Cite journal|title=jstor|journal = Art Journal|volume = 54|issue = 3|pages = 102–107|jstor = 777610|last1 = Morgan|first1 = Ann Lee|year = 1995}}
  • McNALLY, OWEN. “Painter Muirhead peers through a history, darkly". Courant.com, Hartford Courant, September 13, 2018
  • Mercer, Valerie J., et al. "Examining Identities". Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts, vol. 86, no. 1/4, 2012, pp. 66–87. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43492326.
  • Mobilio, Albert. "The Bookness of Not-Books: Modern and Contemporary Artists' Books", The Paris Review, June 22, 2017{{Cite web|url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/06/22/bookness-not-books/|title=The Bookness of Not-Books|last=Mobilio|first=Albert|date=2017-06-22|website=The Paris Review|language=en|access-date=2019-04-01}}
  • Nelson, Marilyn. "The Freedom Business (Ca. 1790)". Venture Smith and the Business of Slavery and Freedom, edited by James Brewer Stewart. by James O. Horton, University of Massachusetts Press, 2010, pp. 257–258. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vk4gq.16.{{Cite book|title=the freedom business}}
  • Perosino, Bruno. "Marking 35 Years: The Work of Deborah Dancy". The William Benton Museum of Art, July 18, 2017{{Cite web|url=https://benton.uconn.edu/2017/07/18/marking-35-years-the-work-of-deborah-dancy/|title=Marking 35 Years: The Work of Deborah Dancy|website=benton.uconn.edu |publisher= The William Benton Museum of Art|last=Perosino|first=Bruno|date=2017-07-18|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-01}}
  • Raynor, Vivian. "Spirit in the Wood/Paint". The New York Times, Sunday, February 26, 1989
  • Raynor, Vivian, "Stamford Museum". The New York Times, Sunday: May 2, 1989
  • Robert, Kiener. "In Works with a Visceral, Spontaneous Feel, Deborah Dancy Explores the Amorphous Zone between Abstraction and Representation". New England Home Magazine
  • Robin Kahn. ROBIN KAHN, January 1, 1970.
  • Rosoff, Patricia. “Small Vistas, The 10-Year Show at 100 Pearl". Hartford Advocate, July 15, 2004.
  • Zimmer, William. "ART; A Glimpse of Contemporary Taste". The New York Times, February 25, 1996.
  • Zimmer, William. "Connecticut Biennial". The New York Times, April 14, 1991.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AYxmAgAAQBAJ&q=Zimmer,+William.+“Connecticut+Biennial.”&pg=PA126|title=Connecticut Biennial|date=December 19, 2013|isbn=9781135638825|last1=Heller|first1=Jules|last2=Heller|first2=Nancy G.|publisher=Routledge }}

References

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Category:20th-century African-American people

Category:20th-century African-American women artists

Category:21st-century African-American artists

Category:21st-century African-American people

Category:21st-century African-American women artists

Category:21st-century American women artists

Category:1949 births

Category:African-American painters

Category:African-American printmakers

Category:American contemporary painters

Category:American printmakers

Category:American women academics

Category:American women painters

Category:American women printmakers

Category:Living people

Category:University of Connecticut faculty