Duane Paluska

Featured
'Opening'
'Opening'
$3,200.00
'Yes/No' (Sold)
'Yes/No' (Sold)
$4,400.00
'Horse' (sold)
'Horse' (sold)
$3,200.00
'Jag' Duane Paluska painting
'Jag' (SOLD)
$2,400.00
'Untitled' (Sold)
'Untitled' (Sold)
$2,800.00
'Untitled' (SOLD)
'Untitled' (SOLD)
$1,400.00
'Untitled'(Sold)
'Untitled'(Sold)
$1,600.00
 

ARTIST STATEMENT

DUANE PALUSKA (1936-2020)

As a gallery owner, a furniture designer and builder, a painter and a sculptor, Duane Paluska was a fixture in Maine’s contemporary art scene for many years. His minimal, miter-jointed sculptures play off the traditional forms and conventions of furniture to convey geometric abstraction. Though Paluska’s furniture-making experience was the launching point for his artwork, his art departs from that functional practice in significant ways. He manipulates single elements like chair legs into new, unexpected shapes, or skews familiar forms like tables in mischievous ways. The formal elements of his sculptures sometimes make up the compositional foundation of his wall pieces, which are wood shapes covered in canvas. His wall pieces, though flat, incorporate sculptural forms within which geometric shapes sometimes reinforce, sometimes complement, and sometimes contradict these sculptural perimeters. His wall pieces suggest picture frames that have taken over the paintings they were meant to surround.

EDUCATION

1970: Ph.D. English and American Literature, Brandeis University

1964: M.A. English and American Literature, Middlebury College (Breadloaf School of English, Class Marshall)

1958-59: Graduate Study, Yale University, Woodrow Wilson Fellow

1958: A.B. Cum Laude, Knox College. Major: English Minors: Art, History, Philosophy. Phi Beta Kappa. Blonder Art Prize. Merritt Moore Philosophy Prize

SELECTED RECENT EXHIBITIONS

2019:

  • Icon Contemporary Art (2 person show)
  • Flux, Corey Daniels, Wells ME

2018:

  • Some Reliable Truths About Chairs, UMVA Gallery, Portland ME
  • Corey Daniels Gallery, Wells, ME (solo show)

2016:

  • Corey Daniels Gallery, Wells, ME
  • Discomfort, Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ

2015:

  • Curator Gallery, New York, NY

2014:

  • Corey Daniels Gallery, Wells, ME (three person show)

2013:

  • Maine Biennial, Portland Museum of Art

2012:

  • Paintings and Sculpture, McCoy Gallery, Merrimack College (solo show)
  • Paintings and Sculpture, ICON Contemporary Art, (solo show)

2011:

  • Counterpoint I, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME (2 person show)

2010:

  • Sit Down, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
  • Sculpture, Fryeburg Academy, Fryeburg, ME (2 person show)

2009:

  • Planes of Abstraction, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME
  • Sculpture, Trifles Gallery, Wiscasset, ME (solo show)

2007:

  • Sculpture and Paintings, June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME (Solo show)

2005:

  • Sculpture, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston MA
  • Sculpture and Paintings, June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland ME (solo show)

2004:

  • Sculpture and Paintings, McCoy Gallery, Merrimack College (solo show)
  • Sublime Geometry, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport ME
  • Out of the Woods, Cooley Gallery, Old Lyme CT
  • Home, Payson Gallery, University of New England, Portland ME
  • 20/20 EnVision, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville ME

2003:

  • Maine Biennial, Portland Museum of Art
  • New Paintings, June Fitzpatrick Gallery (High Street), Portland ME (solo show)
  • New Sculpture, June Fitzpatrick Gallery (Congress Street), Portland ME (solo show)

2002:

  • Maine Contemporary Furniture, Colby College Museum of Art

1999:

  • Artists’ Boxes, Brookfield Craft Center, Brookfield CT

1997:

  • Textural Abstraction, Bachelier-Cardonsky Gallery, Kent CT (solo show)
  • New Paintings, ICON Contemporary Art, Brunswick ME (solo show)

1996:

  • Hands to Metal, Maine Art Gallery, Wiscasset ME

1995:

  • Function to Form, University of Southern Maine (2 person show)

1994:

  • New Work, ICON Contemporary Art, Brunswick ME (solo show)

1993:

  • Mainescapes, Ogunquit Museum of American Art
  • Inaugural Exhibition, Gleason Fine Art, Portland ME

1991:

  • Paintings and Sculpture, Dean Valentgas Gallery, Portland ME (solo show)

1990:

  • Between Dimensions, Dean Valentgas Gallery, Portland ME

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Bates College

Portland Museum of Art

DeCordova Museum

Walker Art Museum, Bowdoin College

Merrimack College

EMPLOYMENT

1989 - Present: ICON Contemporary Art, Founder and Director

1973 - Present: Self-employed artist, furniture designer and builder, home designer and builder

1967 - 73: Assistant Professor of English, Bowdoin College, Brunswick ME

1963 - 66: Instructor of English, Wheelock College, Boston MA

1959 - 62: English Teacher, Governor Dummer Academy, S. Byfield MA