`Trinidad perspective`

Major group exhibitions
1967 1971 1975 1977 1977 1981 1981
1982 1984
1990 1991 1992 1994 1994 1997 1997 Torre Abbey, Torquay (Group Exhibition)
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England
(Three-Man Exhibition)
2003
2006
Curwen Gallery, London, England
(Group Exhibition)
“Midlands Art Now”, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
England (Group Exhibition)
“Mid Art 77”, Dudley Art Gallery
(Group Exhibition)
“Mid-Art 81”, Dudley Art Gallery
(Group Exhibition)
“Ikon Gallery Touring Show” - Various Venues in
Midlands
“Sade 82”, Cork, Ireland, (Group Exhibition)
Arts Council Gallery, Belfast, N. Ireland
(Four-Man Exhibition)
2006
‘Trinidad perspective’
“Homage to Bob Marley” National Gallery,
Kingston, Jamaica
New Paintings by Rex Dixon
“The Caribbean in the Age of Modernity: An
Exhibition of Photo-based works by Caribbean
artists and photographers” - co-curated with
Patricia Mohammed, National Library,
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Museum of
Modern Art, Santo Domingo.
“A Suitable Distance: Impressions of Trinidad by
five artists” - Rex Dixon, Peter Doig, Chris Ofili,
Kofi Kayiga and Roberta Stoddart: at Soft Box
Studios, Trinidad, Curated by Andy Jacobs
2002 - 2012
2008- 2013 “The Jamaica National Biennial” National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica
Annual Summer Exhibition, Engine Room
Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Bay Gallery, Montego Bay, Jamaica
(Three Man Exhibition)
Galerie Malraux, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
(Group Exhibition)
Marpad Art Gallery, Miami, U.S.A.
(Group Exhibition)
“Home & Away - Seven Jamaican Artists”
October Gallery, London, England
Second Biennial of Caribbean & Central American
Painting, Museum of Modern Art,
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Third Biennial of Caribbean & Central American
Painting, Museum of Modern Art,
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
“Black as Colour” National Gallery of Jamaica,
Kingston, Jamaica
1985 - 2001
2003
2005
“Tomb” Acrylic on paper, 2014 12 x 9 ins
Thursday June 26th to July 17th, 2014
“Annual National Art Exhibition”
National Gallery of Jamaica
James Wray & Co
Grove Gallery, Down Patrick, Northern Ireland
“Caribbean Realities II” Museum of the Americas,
Charleston, South Carolina
‘Directive’ Acrylic on paper , 2014 12 x 9 ins
14 – 16 James St. South Belfast,
Northern Ireland, BT2 7GS
www.jameswray.ie
REX DIXON: Solo exhibitions
‘Trinidad perspective’: New Paintings by Rex Dixon
1973 Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham, England
As an art student in 1967 I won first prize of 25 pounds in
an art competition run by a local garage in Torquay. The
theme of the show was “Transport”. I entered a hard-edged
painting based on amalgamated and collaged road signs.
This competition, adjudicated by Justin Knowles, was the
only art prize I ever won, as I also never entered another
art competition since. Once the prize was announced I was
accosted by a local artist, renowned for his harbour scenes
that said to me “nice piece of design”. Of course over the
forty odd years since then I have tried to make paintings
which were not just that.
The paintings I showed in James Wray in 2012 in an
exhibition titled “Caribbean Edge” were gestural on the
whole with varied linear elements. These lines could be
interpreted as horizon, cliff edge or just to stabilize just the
surface of the picture plane. The current works on show
here have converted the lines into blocks of colour working
along varied perspective levels. These paintings are
horizontal or landscape format, with the gestural elements
contained by the flat geometric colour. Often they appear
to be seascapes or interiors, viewed through an opening.
If one is on the inside of a building in the Caribbean one
is continually viewing the outside through burglar bars,
which are on every home. The art historical continuity is
quite plain – from cubism to late Mondrian and on to sixties
gesture and hard edged abstraction. Looking at the pictures
now in Trinidad before shipping them to Belfast I find them
primarily oddly didactic. My wife, by the way, finds them
too ordered and methodical. In a certain light they seem to
be saying No Entry, Yellow lines, Turn right only, as if they
were only road signs.
Maybe old habits never die, or am I due to win an unsolicited
prize.
Maracas Valley, Trinidad - March 2014
1974 Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham, England
1976 Dudley Art Gallery, England
1977 Stafford Art Gallery, England
1980 Ibis Gallery, Leamington Spa, England
1980Holt Street Gallery, Birmingham, England
1983Art and Design Centre, Ulster Polytechnic,
Belfast N. Ireland
1984 Art and Design Centre, Ulster Polytechnic,
Belfast N. Ireland
1985 Octagon Gallery, Belfast, N. Ireland
1986 Bilston Art Gallery, England
1988 Central Space Gallery, London, England
Studio interior Maracas Valley, Trinidad, 2014
ARTIST’S PROFILE
1989 Frame Centre Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica
1991 Frame Centre Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica
1993Galerie 14, Kingston, Jamaica
Rex Dixon is a painter, trained in a number of art schools in
the UK. He was Visual Arts Officer at Midlands Art Centre,
Birmingham from 1972-1977, organizing exhibitions,
lectures, films and seminars on all aspects of contemporary
art. He taught painting as a full time lecturer on the B.A.
degree course at the New University of Ulster, Belfast, prior
to teaching in the painting department at the Edna Manley
School for the Visual Arts, Jamaica from 1985 to 1999. He has
exhibited extensively in the Caribbean and internationally
and represented Jamaica in the second and third Biennale
of Caribbean and Central American Painting, The Museum
of Modern Art, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. His
work can be seen in the permanent collection of the National
Gallery of Jamaica and the Soft Box Studios Gallery, Port
of Spain, Trinidad. His permanent studio is 5A Mountain
View, Maracas Valley, St. Joseph, Trinidad, West Indies.
1994 & 1996 Grosvenor Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica
Email: rexdixon39@gmail.com
Saatchi Online: www.saatchionline.com/profiles
Facebook: Rex Dixon
2012 1997 Via Galerie, The Hague, The Netherlands
1998 & 2000 Mutual Life Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica
2001
2002
2003
2006
2007
2008
Caribbean Contemporary Arts, Laventille,
Trinidad and Tobago
Gallery 1234 , Hotel Normandie, Port of Spain,
Trinidad and Tobago
National Museum and Art Gallery,
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
The Gallery at Fine Art, Port of Spain,
Trinidad and Tobago
Amrose Sable Gallery, Albany, NY
Softbox Studios Gallery, Port of Spain,
Trinidad and Tobago
2010
“Seventeen Colours” Softbox Studios Gallery,
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
2013
“Death of Painting” Softbox Studios Gallery,
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago,
November 2013 to February 2014
James Wray and Co, Belfast, Northern Ireland