July 1–November 15, 2024
Dan May spent his entire life in Salem, OR traveling beyond just a few times ever. He drew inspiration right at home from the sight of logs on trucks, a tree’s rings, workmen’s tools, farm buildings, and the collegiality of a corner bar.
He was an outsider artist but not naïve. He had a broad knowledge and appreciation of the larger world of art, architecture, fashion, auto, boat, plane design. He loved baseball.
This traveling case is an opportunity to display D.E. May’s artistic vision and a celebration of his legacy. We hope that everyone, and particularly children, will learn that inspiration can come from what is seen and experienced right at home and made from anything. A piece of cardboard can resemble a grain elevator, basalt cliffs, a building, a train car, or a boat. The artworks inside the case range from intimate pencils used by the artist (to add last minute marks to a piece) to completed three-dimensional sculptures, objects he called ‘Miniatures,’ and other work and ephemera highlighting the breadth of his sculptural practice.
— Jane Beebe, Owner & Director of PDX Contemporary, Portland, OR.
D.E. May’s work is included in the collections of Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, NY), Boise Art Museum, Portland Art Museum, Seattle Art Museum, Hallie Ford Museum of Art (Salem, OR), Tacoma Art Museum, University of Alaska Museum of the North (Fairbanks, AK), Blanton Museum of Art (Austin, TX), Oregon Arts Commission (Salem, OR), the Regional Arts and Culture Council (Portland, OR), and ArtColl Trust (Seattle, WA) and many notable private collections.