Painting (Major)

Jane Dickson

Jane Dickson is a painter of American darkness first recognized for depictions of Times Square where she lived and/or worked from 1978 thru 2008.

Her focus gradually widened to include other facets of the architecture of distraction; demolition derbies, carnivals, casinos, malls and highways utilizing industrial materials such as AstroTurf, sandpaper, vinyl and felt for both their tactile qualities and their associations.

In 1981, Dickson initiated "Messages to the Public" a Public Art Fund project, presenting a series of artist designed animated works for the first digital light board in Times Square, Spectacolor's 1 Times Square Billboard. In 2008, Dickson created a beloved series of 68 life-size mosaics figures of New Year's Eve revelers installed in the Times Square subway station. Dickson was an early member of the artist collective, Colab. She was one of the organizers of the now legendary Times Square Show for which she created the poster and a Spectacolor animation. Dickson's work has been exhibited widely nationally and internationally and is included in the collections of 30 museums including The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art. In 2015, The National Portrait Gallery-Smithsonian Institution acquired her Portrait of Fab Five Freddy from 1982, which is currently on display.