My work attempts to shapeshift and transform fleeting moments of joy, isolation, power, and friendship into something more lasting and fluid. How can I make material these ephemeral experiences so that we can reflect, revisit, and remember them in all their ecstasies and agonies?
— Dianna Settles
Dianna Settles’ practice examines what it is to exist as part of a collective, portraying how culture, politics, and ideologies intertwine in community. Forms are arranged symbolically in poetic compositions, placing portraits of friends into potent moments in time. Bathhouses, prisons, and gathering places are depicted in conversation, while blooming patterns, details, and colors are woven into the scenes. Settles draws from Western tradition, as well as from the art history of her father’s native Vietnam, mindfully synthesizing multiple lineages while recontextualizing marginalized bodies.
Dianna Settles was born in 1989 and grew up in Blue Ridge, GA. She lives and works in Lexington, Kentucky. Settles received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2014.
Settles’ recent exhibitions include Ribbon of Earth at Asia Now fair with Galerie Marguo, Paris, FR (2024, solo); Kiaf SEOUL fair with Galerie Marguo, Seoul, KR (2024, group); Casa Marguo Summer Presentation, Menorca, ES (2024, group); New artworks from the Consortium Museum Collection, Consortium Museum, Dijon, FR (2024, group); A Thousand Paths Bloom, Galerie Marguo, Paris, FR (2023, solo); Home Run, Casa Marguo Inaugural Exhibition, Menorca, ES (2023, group); A Life Worth Living Would Be A Life Worth Living, MARCH, New York, US (2022, solo); Olly Olly Oxen Free, Institute 193, Lexington, US (2021, solo); 99 Flowers, Versa Gallery, Chattanooga, US (2018, solo), Hi-Lo Press, Atlanta, US (2018, solo), HI LO, Runaway Studio, Pittsburgh, US (2018, solo). She has also exhibited with MINT Gallery (Atlanta, GA), the High Museum (Atlanta, GA), Delaplane (San Francisco, CA), and the San Francisco Art Institute (San Francisco, CA), among others.
Her work is in the permanent collections of the Consortium Museum (Dijon, FR), X Museum (Shanghai, CN), Longlati Foundation (Shanghai, CN), Podo Museum (Jeju, KR) and the ICA Miami (Miami, US).
Education
| 2014 |
BFA, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA |
Solo Exhibitions
| 2024 |
Galerie Marguo, Asia Now, Ribbon of Earth, Paris, France |
| 2023 |
Galerie Marguo, A Thousand Paths Bloom, Paris, France |
| 2022 |
MARCH, A Life Worth Living Would Be A Life Worth Living, New York, NY |
| 2021 |
Institute 193, Olly Olly Oxen Free, Lexington, KY |
| 2018 |
Versa Gallery, 99 Flowers, Chattanooga, TN |
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Hi-Lo Press, 99 Flowers, Atlanta, GA |
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| 2015 |
Runaway Studio, HI LO, Pittsburgh, PA |
| 2014 |
Octane, Sudden Cinder, Atlanta, GA |
| 2012 |
Octane, No Place Like Home, Atlanta, GA |
Group Exhibitions
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2024 |
Galerie Marguo, Casa Marguo Summer Presentation, Menorca, ES |
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2024 |
Le Consortium, New artworks for Consortium Museum Collection, Dijon, France |
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2023 |
Galerie Marguo, Home Run, Casa Marguo Inaugural Exhibition, Menorca, Spain |
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MARCH, Dallas Art Fair, Dallas, TX |
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2022 |
Galerie Marguo, ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair, Shanghai, China |
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2021 |
MARCH, Pre-Renovation Potluck, Manhattan, NY |
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MINT Gallery Jurell Cayetano, Gerald Lovell, Dianna Settles, Atlanta, GA |
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2020 |
Swan Coach House Gallery, Nightwork: 2020 EDGE Award Exhibition, Atlanta, GA |
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MINT Gallery, Semblance, Juried Exhibition, Atlanta, GA |
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2019 |
Delaplane, The One That Got Away, San Francisco, CA |
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High Museum, Of Origins and Belonging, Atlanta, GA |
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2019 |
(Mural) 10eme District, To Our Friends | À Nos Amis, Paris, France |
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2019 |
Hartsfield-Jackson Intl Airport, artintheATL, Atlanta, GA |
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2019 |
Factory Atlanta, Art Crush, Atlanta, GA |
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2018 |
Trio Gallery, In These Streets, Athens, GA |
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Southern Exchange Ballroom, Art Papers Auction, Atlanta, GA |
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Collect on Sunday, Bodies of Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, Atlanta, GA |
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Wish Gallery, HER RITUAL, Atlanta, GA |
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ADAC, Hambidge Auction, Atlanta, GA |
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Mammal Gallery, WREKtacular, Atlanta, GA |
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Zuckerman Museum of Art, Time Like the Present, Kennesaw, GA |
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2017 |
Facet Gallery, Signs of Solidarity, Atlanta, GA |
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The Boiler Room, Art Papers Auction, Atlanta, GA |
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WonderRoot, The Gathering, Atlanta, GA |
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Murmur Gallery, Assembly Required, Atlanta, GA |
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Blue Mark Gallery, This Is It, Atlanta, GA |
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Colony Square, Hambidge Auction, Atlanta, GA |
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Swan Coach House Gallery, re:FRESH, Atlanta, GA |
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Big Tree Arts, Dear Atlanta, Atlanta, GA |
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Mason Fine Art, COLLAPSE, Atlanta, GA |
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The City Speaks, 2017, Living Walls, Atlanta, GA |
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Hi-Lo Press, Lets Be Friends 2, Atlanta, GA |
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Eyedrum, Signs of Solidarity: Voter Edition, Atlanta, GA |
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2016 |
Hi-Lo Press, Silken Fiction, Atlanta, GA |
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The Goat Farm, Hambidge Auction, Atlanta, GA |
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Hi-Lo Press, Lets Be Friends, Atlanta, GA |
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Giant Lofts, Art Purrty, Atlanta, GA |
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Swan Coach Gallery, Little Things Mean A Lot, Atlanta, GA |
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Paper Planes Gallery, Pressing Matters, Atlanta, GA |
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2015 |
Campfire Gallery, Raised on Replicas, San Francisco, CA |
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2014 |
SFAI, BFA Graduate Exhibition, San Francisco, CA |
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Diego Rivera Gallery, Print, curated by Noemi Szyller, San Francisco, CA |
Residencies
| 2020 |
Atlanta Contemporary Studio Artist Program |
Awards
| 2019 |
Forward Arts Foundation Edge Award |
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Dianna SettlesHard, ungrateful, hostile and holy. Carving rock with wind, 2024Acrylic and colored pencil on panel61 x 40.6 cm (24 x 16 in)
64 x 43.6 x 4.6 cm (25 3/16 x 17 3/16 x 1 13/16 in) framed -
Dianna SettlesIn folding and being folded by the suns, the struggles, the Springs, 2024Acrylic and colored pencil on panel61 x 40.6 cm (24 x 16 in)
64 x 43.6 x 4.6 cm (25 3/16 x 17 3/16 x 1 13/16 in) framed -
Dianna SettlesThe earth drank the juice, 2024Acrylic and colored pencil on panel61 x 40.6 cm (24 x 16 in)
64 x 43.6 x 4.6 cm (25 3/16 x 17 3/16 x 1 13/16 in) framed -
Dianna Settles99 flowers open like an open head (abundancing together, the living altar), 2023Acrylic, gouache, and colored pencil on wood panel81.3 x 61 cm (32 x 24 in)
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Dianna SettlesMeadows of flame leap. More light for the understory, 2023Acrylic and colored pencil on panel81.3 x 61 x 4.4 cm (32 x 24 x 1 3/4 in)
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Dianna SettlesStanding in the Green Sound (In my mind I’m swimming towards you / Thighs hemmed by cold water), 2023Acrylic and colored pencil on panel29.8 x 20.3 cm (11 3/4 x 8 in)
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Dianna SettlesOn the stroll of the stolen life (ripe for the taking), 2022Acrylic and colored pencil on panel30.5 x 20.3 x 5.7 cm
12 x 8 x 2 1/4 in -
Dianna SettlesSummer Is Not All (the chickens try to eat embroidered butterflies off garments and we follow their cue to pursue our wants, our whims, our hungers), 2022Acrylic, oil, colored pencil on panel76.2 x 61 cm
30 x 24 in -
Dianna SettlesMay the land grow green, May it swallow our mistakes (this year we won’t dig the trenches so deep), 2021Acrylic, oil, colored pencil on panel76.2 x 61 cm
30 x 24 in -
Dianna SettlesSelf-portrait after Elin Danielson-Gambogi’s ‘After Breakfast’, 2021Acrylic, oil, colored pencil on canvas40.6 x 50.8 cm
16 x 20 in -
Dianna SettlesThe warm and hot baths’ insistence on our porosity: confine your measure to the boundary of the sky (water is the only one who knows what has always been), 2021Acrylic, colored pencil81.3 x 121.9 cm
32 x 48 in -
Dianna SettlesThe way out is across, in ardor (That Spring when the deer who had been ravaging the field was hit by a car one morning and the farmers came to weed the field and found her in the road, still warm), 2021Acrylic and colored pencil on panel32 × 24 in
81.3 x 61 cm -
Dianna SettlesThey came to eat the moon again (does anyone feel like cooking this week?), 2021Acrylic, oil, colored pencil on panel63.5 x 63.5 cm
25 x 25 in -
Dianna SettlesWe must exist more and heavier // we are learning discipline everyday, Bench pressing, jiu-jitsu training, training for our future study We must exist more and heavier // we are learning discipline everyday, Bench pressing, jiu-jitsu training, training , 2021Acrylic, colored pencil on panel81.3 x 121.9 cm
32 x 48 in
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Dianna Settles: A Thousand Paths Bloom
Paris Exhibition Film 11 Sep 2023Galerie Marguo is pleased to present A Thousand Paths Bloom, a solo exhibition of recent paintings by the Atlanta-based artist Dianna Settles. On view from...Read more -
Dianna Settles: A Thousand Paths Bloom
Paris Exhibition Teaser 31 Aug 2023Read more
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Artnet Talentspotter: Dianna Settles
Cathy Fan Editor-in-Chief for Artnet News China & Vivienne Chow London Correspondent, Artnet Pro, 16 Oct 2024 -
Oxford American: The Entwining of Matter
Dianna Settles infuses her paintings with flora, earth, water, and breathAlyssa Ortega Coppelman, Oxford American, 19 Mar 2024 -
Oxford American: Southern Art Issues
Oxford American , 21 Feb 2024 -
The New York Times: What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries in January
‘The sea swept the sandcastles away. (To wake up in Atlanta!)’Jillian Steinhauer, The New York Times, 4 Jan 2024 -
The Anarchist Review of Books: Stop Cop City
Atlanta is burningThe Anarchist Review of Books, 30 Dec 2023 -
L'hebdo du QDA: Paris + Art Basel #3
L’exposition « Dianna Settles: A Thousand Paths Bloom » à la galerie Marguo à ParisCaroline Boudehen, QDA, 20 Oct 2023 -
Whitehot Magazine: Dianna Settles: A Life Worth Living Would Be A Life Worth Living
Vittoria Benzine, Whitehot Magazine, 1 Dec 2022 -
The New York Times Style Magazine | Paris, Europe’s Former Art Capital, Is Back on Top
Noor Brara, The New York Times Style Magazine, 5 May 2022
