DAYTON, OH.- On view through June 8, 2025, at the Dayton Art Institute, Jamie Wyeth: Unsettled will trace a persistent vein of intriguing, often disconcerting imagery over the career of renowned artist Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946). This traveling exhibition features more than 40 works drawn from museum and private collections nationwide that focus on the artist’s arresting, visceral imagery, revealing fascinating insight into Wyeth and the art of visual storytelling.
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A distinguished figure in contemporary art, Wyeth is recognized for his fiercely independent, realistic approach to art. This exhibition follows Wyeth’s entire career and looks at a specifically darker thread within his oeuvre of troubling and unnerving imagery. “My life has been full of ghosts,” Wyeth once said in an interview, and in many of the works in this exhibition, he shares these hauntings with the viewer.
“Unsettled is an opportunity to explore a specific aspect of Jamie Wyeth’s career, on that features unease and compelling compositions that may be disturbing, but are certainly engaging,” said DAI Head Curator & Curatorial Affairs Director Jerry N. Smith. “The exhibition is divided into three distinct sections: ‘Strangers and Specters;’ ‘Natural and Supernatural Worlds;’ and ‘Haunted Places and Disturbing Spaces.’ We find in each section Wyeth’s ability to evoke cinematic, immersive experiences and to inspire imaginative responses by the viewer.”
Wyeth stands apart in a shadowy and bizarre realm of his own creation. While frequently contradicted and even hidden by the artist’s fuller body of work—particularly his well-known coastal views, farmscapes and portraits—a consistent thread of darker, more troubling imagery has been a constant in the artist’s work over the past 60 years. Across the decades of his career, he has focused on these unnerving, even frightening events, zeroed in on uncanny experiences and become a virtuoso of the unsettled. His work has evolved from his youth’s ultra-realistic visions and skillful brushwork into a mature expressionism in which a masterful use of media, color and texture amplifies his canvases.
“Jamie Wyeth, a third-generation artist - son of Andrew Wyeth and grandson of N.C. Wyeth - is distinguished in his own right as an incredibly talented contemporary painter,” said DAI Director & President Michael R. Roediger. “This exhibition follows the development of Wyeth’s artistic skillset, focusing particularly on his use of visceral imagery to leave the viewer ill at ease. We hope when seeing the work, guests take their time and appreciate Wyeth’s visual storytelling, as each work invites viewers to get lost in Wyeth’s fascinating and strange world.”
Several related educational programs will be offered in conjunction with the Jamie Wyeth: Unsettled exhibition.
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