Exposition Art Blog: Dominick Di Meo

Dominick Di Meo

"Dominick Di Meo (b. 1927, Niagara Falls, NY) spent some of his childhood in a polio ward, which gave him a uniquely hellish reservoir of images to draw on as a young Monster.Early personages were painted in swirls of poured enamel, and experimenting with materials was a sacred part of art making to Di Meo; frottage, assemblage, bronze, and plastic wood were important tools and techniques.
Dismayed by the fact that Di Meo had never visited his ancestral lands, Leon Golub organized a group of collectors to pitch in and send him to Italy in 1961–63.
“Tàpies knocked me out with his thick paint and vinyl,” says Di Meo. “Redon was a big influence, as were the American primitives, like Morris Hirshfield, as well as Eldzier Cortor and Julio de Diego, two earlier Chicagoans who used areas of relief in their paintings.”
Di Meo settled in New York in 1969, where innovations with transfer took him far from the Monster Roster aesthetic, leaving behind rough-hewn surfaces for thinner, smoother ones using photographic collage elements."(smartmuseum.uchicago.edu)
















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