Dyer Arts Center honors Deaf View/Image Arts
Established, emerging and self-taught deaf artists showcase their identity and diversity
Deaf Cultural Center, Olathe, Kansas
De’VIA Mural 2013 – created during the Olathe, Kansas three day De’VIA: Past, Present, and Posterity retreat.
In 1989, the term Deaf View/Image Art (De’VIA) was coined after nine deaf artists met for a four-day workshop preceding the Deaf Way arts festival at Gallaudet University. Their objective was to represent the visual perceptions of deaf artists based on their deaf experience.
Twenty-five years later, Dyer Arts Center at Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf is honoring Deaf View/Image Arts with an exhibition called “Viva De’VIA.” The show runs from Oct. 3 through Nov. 8, with an artist reception at 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10, and a closing reception at 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8.
“ ‘Viva De’VIA’ at Dyer features resistance and affirmation works of emerging artists alongside established De’VIA artists,” said Patti Durr, associate professor in the Department of Cultural and Creative Studies at NTID. “Themes of personhood, perspectives, place, politics, perseverance and affranchisement underscore the central focus of the exhibition.”
The exhibition features 40 deaf artists with close to 70 pieces of work—varying from painting and assemblage, to mixed media, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, digital art, photography and video.
The Dyer Arts Center, located at 52 Lomb Memorial Drive, is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and by request. For more information, email dyerartscenter@rit.edu or call 585-475-6406.