Dennis Clive was born in Niagara Falls, New York. He studied at the State University of New York at Brockport where he received his BS in 1972, and later at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Art and Architecture where he received his MFA in 1975. Clive first exhibited at Allan Stone Gallery in 1976, where over the years he was the subject of six solo shows, and included in numerous group exhibitions. His work has been featured at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Detroit Institute of Art, the Berkeley Art Center, the Contemporary Arts Center of Cincinnati, University of Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery, and the Smithsonian’s American Museum of Art . Clive’s work has has been profiled in numerous publications including Artnews and The New Yorker, and was also the subject of a New York Times interview. The artist lives and works north of the San Francisco Bay, in Sebastopol, California.
Mixing Pop and Funk Art sensibility along with European portrait miniatures, for the past five decades Dennis Clive has fashioned ceramic works that explore iconic symbols of American culture. While taking an elective arts class in college, Clive began experimenting with the sculptural possibilities of clay. Inspired by a dream, he started creating whimsical facsimiles of motor vehicles, primarily trucks. Using the plastic and malleable characteristics of the clay along with an extensive range of surface and finishing possibilities, Clive developed objects and a style that would both satirize and celebrate their counterparts’ metal realities with bright glossy colors, and metallic glazes.
The artist’s subject matter of trucks and their roadside environment evolved over time to include automobiles of distinction, storied and nostalgic, with an emphasis on sport and speed. From there the work naturally developed to include aircraft as well, with a retro-focus echoing the rapid engineering developments of flight in the years between the wars. This fascination with wheeled, mechanical vehicles culminated in “The PLAYERS” , a tribute of sorts to the stylistic innovation and diversity of the most iconic fighting aircraft of WWII.
Marvels at a distance, the true extent of Clive’s abilities are further revealed when viewed close-up, where his attention and scrutiny paid to details like undercarriages, rivets, dashboard instruments, and windshield reflections are most apparent. The realism of the subject matter portrayed need not overshadow the inherently fragile nature of the clay or Clive’s ambitious uses of it. With a style that has its roots in and pays homage to Robert Arneson and California Funk Art, Clive has carved his own niche. His sculptures echo the childhood of the American baby-boomers, who grew up with build-it-yourself models, the fading memories of WWII, and the family automobile.
ALLAN STONE PROJECTS
535 West 22nd Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY, 10011
Tel 212.987.4997
“It is as if these machines are presented to us so as to allow us to experience the magic of the real thing even in its absence.”
- Allan Stone -
p.104 Sotheby’s Catalogue / The Collection of Allan Stone, Vol.III, New York - 23 September 2011.