Lesley Dill (b. 1950) was born in Bronxville, New York, USA. She received a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1972 from Trinity College in Connecticut, a Masters in teaching from Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts and a Masters of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She was an English Literature Major before getting her Master of Fine Arts Degree and the influence of this can be seen in her works where she combines the visual and verbal. In 1992, she began working at Landfall Press, producing innovative editions that combined traditional techniques such as lithography, silkscreen, and etchings with collaged elements.
Lesley Dill is one of the most prominent American artists working at the intersection of language and fine art. Her elegant sculptures, art installations, mixed-media photographs, and evocative performances draw from both her travels abroad and profound interests in spirituality and the world’s faith traditions. Exploring the power of words to cloak and reveal the psyche, Dill invests new meaning in the human form. Intellectually and aesthetically engaging, the core of her work emerges from an essential, visionary awareness of the world.
Fluid metaphors, appropriated from the poetry and writings of Emily Dickinson, Salvador Espriu, Tom Sleigh, Franz Kafka, and Rainer Maria Rilke, connect with the diverse media that Dill employs. Paper, wire, horsehair, photography, foil, bronze, and music comprise elements through which the artist conveys the complexities of communication. The often secret, indecipherable, and bold meanings of words emerge not only from hearing their sounds, but by feeling them—language is a visceral, bodily experience. Dill challenges the viewer to confront our linguistic relationships as well as perceptions of language itself.
Dill was a featured artist in the David Krut Projects booth at the Joburg Art Fair in 2008.
