Born in Sydney, Australia in 1938, Phillip Dizick moved to the United States in 1960 and settled in California. For roughly a decade he was involved in education as an art teacher for youth of all ages, sharing his knowledge on sculpting, ceramics, painting and drawing. Dizick has also worked in the theatre with designing costumes, props and sets. His artistic design knowledge has lent itself to the page in illustrations and book cover design.
Most of Dizick’s work is figurative with the exception of his geometric designs. Figurative art is a representation of what is real. Dizick notes that much of his work reflects on multiple images and depth. In this exhibition, Johnson County Library is pleased to show Dizick’s work in ceramics, paintings, bronze sculptures and geometric designs.
Dizick’s decades-long career has allowed for him to work and create with many different mediums. Much of Dizick’s work has visual layers with movement as well as functionality in the abstract. Dizick’s abstract ceramics, seemingly nonfunctional, have spouts. His paintings frequently make use of depth with windows, doors, and figures. Words are included with his painting, allowing the viewer to apply an additional lens of interpretation to the work. Dizick’s bronze sculptures feature figures in motion. In line with Dizick’s other work, the sculptures are female forms in various life stages. As the viewer moves, the images changes slightly.
Dizick’s geometric works reinstate the artist’s fascination with depth and visual movement. Looking long enough at his two-dimensional pieces, a viewer starts to see additional layers in how the lines intersect, with new shapes and images coming to the forefront. Dizick’s three-dimensional pieces house colored strings. Moving around these pieces brings out layers of colors with the space between diminishing and growing. Some of Dizick’s geometric work change from two dimensions to three, going from a flat piece to a DNA strand in a matter of seconds or a large flat triangle to a network of standing triangles nestled inside one another.
In using depth, Dizick looks at how it plays through space, whether it is in the placement of figures in a work, the duality of indoors and outdoors in a painting, or geometric design and sculpture. Dizick cites active meditation as an influential part of his creativity – another instance of depth internally and externally. Teaching remains an important part of Dizick’s life. Dizick states that his role as an artist in society is “that my art takes the role of teaching and [becomes] a source of growth and potential for another person.”
For more information, email the artist at susanpmarie@me.com.
