Biography
Rick Dillingham developed his interest in Native American cultures while studying at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque in the middle 1970s. He also worked in two museums during this time, restoring Native American pottery. Then, following his MFA studies at Claremont Graduate School in 1976, he relocated permanently to Santa Fe, working at the Maxwell Museum. He remained in Santa Fe until his passing in 1994.Dillingham’s own ceramic creations were heavily influenced by the artists he worked among and also by the ancient indigenous cultures he studied. Excavations of Mimbres sites in southern New Mexico have unearthed beautifully painted low-fired pottery punctured with holes; archaeologists believe these pieces were ritually broken in order to release an inherent life force that would otherwise have been trapped. Following that example, in his own mature work Dillingham would break and reassemble his ceramic forms, creating objects with a re-made, assembled and repaired appearance. The assemblage was striking, a combination of the ancient and modern. Where ancient indigenous culture potters followed cultural traditions, Rick Dillingham was able to merge the practices in Mimbres burial pots with his extensive background with ceramic restoration. This combination of approaches led him to experiment with vessels as compositions of shards: first, he hand-built, burnished, and fired a pot after which he carefully shattered it, decorated the pieces, and finally reassembled it. In the early 1970s, Dillingham also began crafting ceramic gas cans patterned after Pueblo ceramic water jars and meant to be a commentary on our culture’s dependence on gasoline.
He was well known for his scholarship. In addition to his own work, Dillingham assembled many exhibitions of Native American art and was the author of several books including Seven Families in Pueblo Pottery, Acoma and Laguna Pottery, and Fourteen Families in Pueblo Pottery.
Dillingham was an artist, scholar, collector, and curator. He made significant contributions to the ceramic arts, especially by disseminating his knowledge of Native American culture and Pueblo pottery. He developed a great appreciation for indigenous culture pottery, earning the respect of native artists, fellow dealers, and collectors alike, and assembled an astounding collection of Pueblo and Mojave pottery. Some aspects of the collection, now housed at the Indian Arts Research Center of the School of American Research, are considered one of the largest and most complete in the country.
Dillingham’s life was cut tragically short at the age of 41 due to complications from AIDS. His considerable legacy lives on in his books and in permanent collections across the globe, including the Los Angeles Museum of Art, the Mint Museum of Craft and Design in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023 Rick Dillingham: To Make, Unmake, and Make Again, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico1990 Rick Dillingham, Linda Durham Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico (also in 1988 and 1987)
Garth Clark Gallery, New York and Los Angeles, (also in 1988 and 1987)
Crafts of the American Southwest, The Society for Art in Crafts, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
1986-1990 Chicago International Art Exposition, Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois
1989 Raku—Transforming The Tradition, Kansas City Contemporary Arts Center, Kansas City, Missouri
Surface and Form, The National Museum of Ceramic Art, Baltimore, Maryland
National Objects Invitational, The Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Arkansas
Illustrious Alumni, Johnson Gallery of the University Art Museum, University of New Mexico,
Albuquerque, New Mexico
1988 Ceramics by Rick Dillingham/ Beatrice Wood, Tomas Segal Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
Possessions, Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Logan, Utah State University, Logan, Utah
1987 Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, New York
1986 Alcove Show, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Third Western States Exhibition, The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
Craft Today, Poetry of the Physical, American Craft Museum, New York, New York
1985 The American Hand, Washington, D.C.
13th Chunici International Exhibition of Ceramic Art, Nagoya, Japan
Contemporary American Prints and Ceramics, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
1983 Spoleto Festival, Gibbes Art Gallery, Charleston, South Carolina
1981 Sheldon Memorial Art Museum, Lincoln, Nebraska
1980 American Ceramics, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona