BIOGRAPHY

 

   

 

Sophia Dixon Dillo is best known for incorporating light as an active medium into quiet and delicate works made from transparent, translucent or reflective materials, both on a large and small scale. She uses minimal, all-over patterning so the viewer’s attention can shift from the particular to the whole, and back again. Giving each part equal weight emphasizes the appearance of the piece as a whole. The works are experiential – they require the viewer’s presence in order to witness the ever-shifting effects of light and movement on the pieces.

Dillo developed her interest in light during her graduate years at Colorado State University. For an independent study in sculpture, she made large-scale installations using light to illuminate sheer walls of fishing line. These works were pivotal to her artistic path, and eventually led her away from traditional means of painting and toward an explorative dialogue between painting, sculpture, and light.

Dillo resides in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and son at the Boulder Zen Center. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Dillo grew up watching her father, artist Willard Dixon, paint in his studio. She learned to draw from observation at a young age. Struck by the power and simplicity of Mark Rothko’s paintings, she began to explore abstract painting in her early artist years. She studied art at the Lacoste Ecole des Arts in Lacoste, France. She has a BA in philosophy from Colorado College, and completed her academic education with a MFA from Colorado State University in 2009.

Dillo is collected and exhibits throughout the U.S. and internationally. In 2015 she completed an installation for the Calvin Klein Collection on Madison Avenue in New York made from 83 miles of copper thread. Her recent solo exhibit, Emergence, was chosen as a “Pick of the Week” by ArtWeek.LA. She was recently recognized as a notable artist in Colorado with an invitation to participate in Colorado Women in Abstraction at the Center for Visual Arts in Denver.