Professor Diane Edison named Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence

Professor Diane Edison currently has a solo exhibiton at Hollins University in Roanoke, VA. Diane Edison: 2019 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence will be on view at the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum from Thursday, January 17, 2019, through Sunday, April 28, 2019 with a lecture with the artist on Thursday, February 7, 2019 at 6 pm.

In 1986, Edison began to focus on self-portraits and images of family members, co-workers, and friends. She has become well known for these intense, honest, larger-than-life, close-range portraits. Edison creates her work using color pencil on black paper. The intricately detailed works draw the viewer in for scrutiny, and offer an extreme psychological and physical depiction of the people within the artist’s circle.

Established by an anonymous donor in 1997, the endowed Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence program allows the University to bring a nationally recognized artist to campus each academic year. In residence during the spring semester, the visiting artist creates work in a campus studio and teaches an art seminar open to all students.3

Edison earned her BFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, in 1976 and her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986. Edison has been a member of the faculty at the Lamar Dodd School of Art since 1992. Her college textbook, Dynamic Color Painting for the Beginner, was published in 2008 by Harry Abrams in New York City and simultaneously with Laurence King Ltd. in the United Kingdom. It has since been produced in Spanish and Chinese language editions. Edison is represented by George Adams Gallery, and her New York exhibitions have included the Forum Gallery, DC Moore Gallery, and the Tatischef Gallery. Edison’s work has been exhibited at the American Embassies of Moscow, Russia and N’Djamena, Chad; Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea; and other venues in the U.S. and abroad. Edison is the past recipient of the Anonymous Was a Woman Award and the Georgia Women in the Arts Recognition Award.