Location: United States
Education:
Ph.D, Northwestern University. 1962.
Juried Group Shows:
“Valdosta National 2015,” Valdosta Fine Arts Gallery, Valdosta GA. January 20 – February 6, 2015.
“Fine Art Craft Hilton Head 2014,” Walter Greer Gallery, Hilton Head SC. December 9, 2014 - January 4, 2015.
“Invoking the Absence,” Chicago Sculptors International, 2014 Biennial Exhibit. Elks National Memorial, Chicago, IL., May 17–October 26, 2014. Curated by Lucas Cowan.
“6^3 Show” Chicago Sculptors International. CliffDwellers Club, Chicago. August 3-November 1, 2013
“The Universe in a Cubic Foot” Updraft Gallery, Asheville, NC. October 9-November 5, 2013.
“Group Show“ Amsterdam Whitney Gallery, NY. October 4 – November 5, 2013.
“Metal Heads” Madison County Art Center, Marshall, NC. July 12-August 29, 2013.
“Mountain Sculptors” Upstairs Artspace, Tryon, NC. May 31 – July 13, 2013.
“Mountain Sculptors” Monte Vista Hotel, Black Mountain, NC. March 16 – June 17, 2012.
“50th Anniversary Show” Asheville Regional Airport, Asheville, NC. 2012.
“Shared Passion” The Pack Place Gallery, Asheville, NC. June 27 – July 12, 2011.
“Selected Works by Mountain Sculptors” Vadim Bora Gallery, Asheville, NC. Nov. 19 – Dec. 17, 2010
Two-person show:
“Polar Opposites” with Ursula Goebels-Ellis. Hamilton Gallery, Montreat College. June 3 – July 31, 2013
Solo Shows:
Artifact, New York, NY. September 8 – 29, 2013
Gallery Swarm, Chicago, IL. May 18 – June 17, 2012
Museum Shows and Collection:
•The entire “War Series” of nine sculptures is in the permanent collection of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC
•“Survival, Spirit, Dreams, Nightmares” Four-person show. Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art.Chicago, IL. February 9–March 30, 2014.
•"Selections from the Struggle Series" Solo show at Weisman Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. February 21-March 22, 2015.
While I also make abstract and autobiographical works, my principal interest is political art. Having spent my childhood under a fascist regime, my teen years under Soviet occupation and my adulthood in America, I have a deep understanding of the extremes of societal conflict. My art is based on such conflicts, principally depicting the struggle between western civilization and its various detractors; these can be anarchy, nihilism, or external and internal foes. The work can be interpreted from an ecological viewpoint as well, wherein the struggle is between civilization and the natural responses of a wounded and exploited earth.
My vocabulary is to represent civilization by abstracted, but obviously man-made constructs such as stylized buildings or machines and, frequently, simple non-representational objects. The adversary is a variety of alien-appearing plant forms, ranging from repulsive to beautiful. In some pieces civilization is so solid that its attacker can only probe and explore, but cannot inflict damage. In others, it is capable of eroding, cutting into or entering whatever represents the advanced world.
The majority of the works are welded steel, some with brass and copper parts or machined aluminum. I make a concerted effort to produce the pieces so that they are fully executed sculptural objects that can be valued devoid of their narrative.
I am a self-taught, but by no means naïve artist, basing my aesthetic on decades of studying and collecting art (Chicago Imagists and Haitian art). I have had an extended career as a scientist as the John Evans Professor of Neuroscience at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois until my retirement in 2012, I am now a full-time sculptor.
Please see: http://www.pdallosart.com
“Struggle No. 31”
“Struggle No. 34 "Exploitation"”
“Struggle No. 30”
“Struggle No. 25”
“Struggle No. 18 "Acid Rain"”
“Struggle No. 14”
“Struggle No. 12”
“Struggle No. 9”
“End of the Road No. 2 "Fallen Bridge"”
“End of the Road No. 3 "Rock Slide"”
“End of the Road No. 5 "Cornered"”
“untitled”
