About the Artist

David Dann

After receiving a BFA from Cornell University and an MFA from the University of Chicago in the 1970s, David Dann moved to New York City to pursue a career as an artist. Dann also worked as a commercial artist at the time, producing action figure prototypes for Hasbro and Kenner, sculpting holographic models for National Geographic, Marvel Comics, Visa and MasterCard, and building dinosaur replicas for permanent exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Field Museum in Chicago. In later years, after concluding his career as a fine artist, he was the designer of numerous award-winning publications, a radio host on WJFF Radio Catskill and most recently the author of a musical biography that was selected as one of Rolling Stone's Best Books of 2019. David Dann lives in Sullivan County, NY, and is currently working on a book of short stories based on his early days as an artist.

Education

1990-1994: Art & Design Seminar | Komar & Melamid School of Bayonne, New York, NY

1978: Master of Fine Arts | University of Chicago, Hyde Park, Chicago, IL

1974: Bachelor of Fine Arts | Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Career

Early in his career as an artist, Dann made a conscious decision to create anonymous work in affordable multiple editions. As a result, he created and sold work exclusively through museum stores and artist “shops” while earning a living as a commercial artist in New York City. The New Museum in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Field Museum in Chicago all sold his multiples, as did Printed Matter, Gracie Mansion Museum Store, East Side Book Store and the 5 and Dime in New York, and Art in Form in Seattle as well as Bookworks in Washington, DC, and Park West Books in Chicago, and many other independent book stores and museum shops. Because Dann chose to display his work through these commercial venues, he does not have a list of conventional gallery exhibitions. A number of his pieces, however, were acquired for the permanent collections of the New Museum and the Franklin Furnace in New York City, as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.