Don Dougan

Don has participated in over 280 exhibits during the past forty years, and his work is represented in over 156 corporate, public, and private collections throughout the United States, as well as overseas in Australia, Finland, Italy, Korea, and Singapore.

2014 – PROBLEMATIC OBJECTS & INNATE DESIRES: MATERIAL DIALOGS – solo exhibit of fifty sculptures, GPC Fine Arts, Clarkston, Georgia
2013 – SEASONS IN STONE – two-person exhibit of twelve collaborative sculptures, AvenueArt Gallery, Montreal, Canada
2013 – STORIES TOLD IN THE GARDEN – solo exhibit of twenty-three sculptures Walker School Gallery, Marietta, Georgia
2013 – SEASONS IN STONE – two-person exhibit of twelve collaborative sculptures, Shenkman Art Centre, Ottowa, Canada
2012 – SEASONS IN STONE – two-person exhibit of eight collaborative sculptures, Sweetwater Cooperative Gallery, Gainesville, Florida
2012 – SEASONS IN STONE – two-person exhibit of twelve collaborative sculptures GPC Central Campus, Clarkston, Georgia
2011 – ROCKS IN THE LIBRARY III – solo exhibit of eight sculptures GPC North Campus Library, Dunwoody, Georgia
2009 – XY SHOW – solo exhibit of eighteen sculptures in the lobby of the Defoor Centre Gallery, Atlanta
2008 – ROCKS/PAPER: REALITY AND METAPHOR – a two person exhibit, with 25 works by Don Dougan, GPC LRC gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
2008 – ART SPACE: DOUGAN -– a solo exhibit of thirty-six works of sculpture, Art Space International gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
2004 – TURNING MEMORY – a solo exhibit of twenty-seven works of sculpture, Walker Gallery, Walker School, Marietta, Georgia
2002 – UNBOUND RESEARCH: STONE METAPHORS – a solo exhibit of 14 sculptures in Georgia Perimeter College, Dunwoody, Georgia
1999 – RESONANCES II– a solo exhibit of twenty-four sculptures in Gainesville College, Gainesville, Georgia
1998 – RESONANCES – a solo exhibit of twenty-six sculptures in Locklear hall, University of North Carolina Pembroke, North Carolina
1996 – LANDSCAPES OF ILLUSION:SCULPTURE – a solo exhibit of thirteen sculptures in Gallery One, McIntosh Gallery, Atlanta
1996 – MYTHWORKS – a solo exhibit of four large sculptures in the atrium of Midtown Plaza, Atlanta
1995 – MYTHOLOGICAL SEDIMENTS – a solo exhibit of five large installation sculptures at the Block Candy Factory Gallery, Atlanta
1992 – LANDSCAPES, LIPS, & FINGERTIPS – a solo exhibit of 35 sculptures at the University of Georgia Art Gallery, Athens
1990 – IN A STONE LANDSCAPE – a solo exhibit of eighteen sculptures at the Georgia State University Art Gallery, Atlanta
1989 – PROBLEMATIC FORMS – a two person exhibit of sculpture & paintings at the NW Unitarian Gallery, 12 works by Don Dougan, Atlanta
1987 – WORKS – a solo exhibit of nineteen sculptures and thirteen works on paper at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, Atlanta
1987 – PLEASE TOUCH – a solo exhibit of fifteen sculptures in the 1st Annual Exhibit of the Walker Gallery, Marietta, Georgia
1982 – MCINTOSH INAUGURAL – a two person exhibit of sculpture and paintings The McIntosh Gallery, Atlanta
1979 – REFLECTIONS – a two person exhibit of sculpture and paintings at the Marietta Fine Art Center, Marietta, Georgia

Don has participated in over 280 exhibits during the past forty years, and his work is represented in over 156 corporate, public, and private collections throughout the United States, as well as overseas in Australia, Finland, Italy, Korea, and Singapore.

2014 ROMANCE OF THE FIGURE AND NUDE – dk Gallery, Marietta, GA
LOOKS GOOD ON PAPER – Spruill Gallery Atlanta, GA
2011 GEORGIA ARTISTS – Abernathy Art Center, Atlanta
INTERNATIONAL KOREAN DRAWING EXHIBITION – invitational group artist exhibit in Seoul, South Korea
2010 GENDER – Altered Esthetics Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
IMAGILLABORATION – collaborative sculpture exhibit, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christie, Texas
2009 IMAGILLABORATION – collaborative sculpture exhibit, New Mexico Highlands University, Las Vegas, New Mexico
2008 reNEW, reUSE, reVIEW – Eyedrum Gallery, Atlanta
BITTER FRUITS – Altered Esthetics Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
CRANES ALOFT – Universidad de Cantabria, Spain
BODY OF ART – jFerrari Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2007 PERIMETER ELEVEN – University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS – Altered Esthetics Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
2006 13th ANNUAL MARITIME EXHIBIT – Coos Bay Art Museum, Oregon
THE ART OF HORROR – Altered Esthetics Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
GOING UNDERGROUND – Art @ Large Gallery, New York, New York
2005 MOSTRA AUTUNNO 2005 – Palazzo Casali, Cortona Italy
FORCES OF NATURE – invitational outdoor group sculpture exhibit, campus of Georgia Perimeter College, Atlanta
KALEIDOSCOPE – invitational group exhibit, gallery 100 Woodruff Art Center, Atlanta
2003 GREEN SPACES – invitational outdoor group sculpture exhibit, campus of Georgia Perimeter College, Atlanta
MOSTRA AUTUNNO 2003 – group exhibit Palazzo Casali, Cortona Italy
ATLANTA/CHICAGO 2003 – group exhibit, Harold Washington College, Chicago, Illinois
2002 SOUTHERN EXPOSURES - invitational exhibit at Imatra Taidemuseo and Kouvolan Taidemuseo, Imatra and Kouvola, Finland
2001 MOSTRA AUTUNNO 2001 – group exhibit Palazzo Casali, Cortona Italy
1999 CONTEMPORARY RELICS – invitational exhibit, William King Regional Arts Center, Abingdon, Virginia
1998 MOSTRA: ESTATE 1998 – group exhibit by participants of the UGA Studies Abroad Program, Palazzo Vagnotti, Cortona, Italy
1997 HECHO EN ATLANTA – invitational exhibit by 16 Atlanta artists, El Instituto Technològico Autònomo de Mèxico, Mexico City, Mexico
MOSTRA DI LAVORI IN CORSO – group exhibit by participants of the UGA Studies Abroad Program, Palazzo Casali, Cortona, Italy
1996 RED CLAY SURVEY – 3rd Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Southern works, Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, Alabama
1994 LOCAL LOVE, SEX, & DEATH – a juried group exhibit at Nexus Center for Contemporary Art, Atlanta
1993 MOSTRA: ESTATE 1993 – group exhibit by participants of the UGA Studies Abroad Program, Palazzo Vagnotti, Cortona, Italy
STATE OF THE ART '93 – invitational group exhibit at New England Fine Arts Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
1992 RED CLAY SURVEY – Third Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Southern works at the Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, Alabama
1991 MOSTRA: ESTATE 1991 – group exhibit by participants of the UGA Studies Abroad Program, Palazzo Vagnotti, Cortona, Italy
1980 SOUTHEASTERN SCULPTURE EXHIBIT group exhibit at Lyndon house gallery, Athens, Georgia
1977 14 SCULPTORS AT THE HIGH - group exhibit at the high Museum of Art, Atlanta
1975 13 MINUS ONE SCULPTURE EXHIBIT - group exhibit at Peachtree Center, Atlanta Georgia

As a child Don began collect and draw rocks, fossils, and seashells. These activities grew into an interest in paleontology and archaeology, but it was the modeling of clay dinosaurs and making of wooden boats that lead him to become a sculptor. He learned to work wood by helping his father in his garage woodshop, and by high school Don had started teaching himself to carve both in wood and stone, and at university he continued the auto-didactic exploration of working stone as the school he attended had no stone-carving sculpture faculty. Don also worked for a collector of antique hand tools for many years, and through his work in researching, writing, and displaying literally thousands of those tools for the collector Don developed an avid interest in the many types of hand tool and their traditional — and not-so-traditional — usage. When the collection became the core of a history museum in North Georgia Don had the additional experience of learning to display and present the collection in a more-formal manner to a different standard for the public. Each of these learning experiences has come-out in his artwork and in the tool-making he often does to create some of the works that require that ‘one-off’ approach.
Though stone is a primary material in which he sculpts, other materials and found objects are also worked in conjunction with the stone to explore the potential expressiveness of each combination. His work is firstly about the material — through the direct interaction of his hands with each material he delves into what those materials can express about his perceptions of the world. The auto-didactic learning process is also an essential part of his work — he tries to explore something new in each new piece; whether it is a new material or combination-of-materials, a new tool, a new approach or technique, or a new premise or idea.
Don has given workshops and taught university-level classes in sculpture and stone-carving in several schools in the metro-Atlanta area, as well as in Italy and in Finland. His work has been exhibited widely in the Southeast region, across the nation, and internationally.




Born 1952 Portland Oregon
BFA Atlanta College of Art, 1975
MFA Georgia State University, 1990
Visiting Sculpture Professor Cortona, Italy — University of Georgia Studies Abroad Program 1993, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2005
Artist-In-Residence Cortona, Italy — University of Georgia Studies Abroad Program 1991, 1997
Visiting Sculpture Professor Imatra, Finland — South Karelia Polytechnic 2004, 2005
Sculpture Instructor — Atlanta College of Art 1986-2006
Instructor of 3D and Sculpture — Georgia Perimeter College 1995-2011
Instructor of 3D and Sculpture — Gainesville College 1999

Making sculpture is like finding meaning in ones dreams.

In the beginning the form and the desire to make are amorphous, without definition excepting for the qualities inherent in the particular piece of material: the size, the shape, the color, the texture, or the implications that material suggests. Every piece of sculpture begins as I acquire the material with which I will work. The material may be either a ‘raw’ block of stone or it may be a found object of almost any sort. At this point the concept of the work in my mind is un-shaped and elusive, awaiting the touch of my fingers to make it real.
As I begin to cut and shape with the tools at hand, I discover the distinct and singular ways in which the material responds. These singular responses to my physical and mental touches inevitably draw me towards further explorations of the potential within this specific piece of material.
These explorations are often not conscious, but are emotional and intuitive responses to the ways the tools affect the material. The making becomes a dialog between the materials and the particular tools or techniques which then leads me to the resolution — the penultimate ‘summing-up’ in that particular conversation. The making of the sculpture is thus like a discussion, and like most discussions the end result is not known until all the participants have had their say.
As sculptor, I am only one of the participants. Besides myself, the materials, the tools, and — in the end — the viewers have the ultimate say as to the dialog’s meaning.