Donald Sultan
Donald Sultan born in 1951, in Asheville, North Carolina
Currently lives and works in New York
Donald Sultan combines the mediums of painting, printing, and sculpture to construct elegant paintings through the use of industrial materials such as tar, linoleum, aluminum, plaster, and enamel.
His structured works are both abstract and representative with rapidly recognizable images such as the Dew series “Disasters”, paintings that focused on industry, war, and man-made catastrophes.
But over the years, he has reinvented still life with images of lemons, poppies, fruits and flowers, and everyday objects.
Sultan's work is interested in the contrast, exploring the dichotomies of beauty and roughness, nature and the artificial, realism and abstraction.
- 2021
- Galeria Senda
- 2017
- “Button Down Modernism” Galerie Andres Thalmann, Zurich, Switzerland.
- 2016
- Traveling Exhibition: “Donald Sultan: The Disaster Paintings;” Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables
- Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas
- The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
- North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
- “Donald Sultan: New Paintings,” Ryan Lee Gallery, New York, New York
- 2015
- “Donald Sultan” Galeria Freites, Caracas, Venezuela
- “Donald Sultan” Galerie Forsblom, Helinski, Finland
- “New Works: Poppies, Mimosas and Buttons" Meyerovich Gallery, San Fransisco, CA
- 2014
- “Floral Constructions,” Vertu Fine Art, Boca Raton, FL
- “Donald Sultan: Artiface" Ryan Lee Gallery, New York, NY
- "Donald Sultan : A Decade of Paintings and Drawings”, Serge Sorokko Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- 2013
- “Echos” Galerie Piece Unique, Paris, France
- 2012
- "Donald Sultan" The Drawing Room, East Hampton, NY
- 2011
- “Soot and Shine: New Works” Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, NY
- “Donald Sultan: New Works” Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, TX
- 2009
- “Donald Sultan: Prints” Mary Ryan Gallery, New YOrk
- “Donald Sultan: The First Decade” Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio:
- “Donald Sultan” Galerie Ernst Hilger, Vienna, Austria
- “Donald Sultan” Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, England
- 2008
- “Donald Sultan: Artificial Images” Aidan Gallery, Moscow, Russia
- “Donald Sultan: Drawings” Forsblom Gallery, Helsinki, Finland
- 2007
- “Donald Sultan” Guy Pieters Gallery, Knokke-Heist, Belgium
- Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, TX “Donald Sultan: New Work”
- 2006
- “Donald Sultan: New Paintings” Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland
- “Donald Sultan: Colors, Smoke and War” Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, NY
- 2005
- “New Paintings” Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO
- “Donald Sultan: Paintings and Works on Paper” Centre Cultural Contemporani Pelaires, Mallorca, Spain
- 2004
- “Donald Sultan” Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, Texas
- "Donald Sultan: Prints & Drawings” Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore
- “Donald Sultan: New Poppy Paintings” Ameringer & Yohe Fine Art, New York, NY
- 2003
- “Donald Sultan: Poppy Paintings" Knoedler & Company, New York, NY
- “Donald Sultan: Poppies, Oranges & Mimosas: New Prints and Drawings” Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, NY
- “Donald Sultan” Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland:
- 2002
- “Donald Sultan” Imago Galleries, Palm Desert, CA
- “Donald Sultan: Painting Life’s Paradoxes” Louise Cameron Wells Art Museum, Wilmington, NC
- 2001
- “Donald Sultan, 10 Paintings” Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, Colorado
- “Donald Sultan, Smoke Rings” Dorothy Blau Gallery, Bay Harbor Islands, Florida
- “Donald Sultan Recent Works” Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas
- 2000
- “Donald Sultan – Selected Drawings 1976 – 1998” Hill Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan
- Traveling exhibition: “Donald Sultan: In the Still-Life Tradition” Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, Tennessee.
- Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, Arizona
- “New Works” Winston Wachter Fine Art, Seattle, Washington
- “Donald Sultan: Paintings & Drawings” Galerie Simonne Stern, New Orleans, Louisiana
- "Donald Sultan: Recent Prints and Drawings” Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, New York
- “Bar Mitzvah” The Jewish Museum – New York, NY
- 1998
- “Donald Sultan” Galerie Lutz Thalmann. – Zurich, Switzerland:
- “Donald Sultan” Baldwin Gallery – Aspen, Colorado
- “Donald Sultan, New Paintings and Drawings” Turner & Runyon Gallery, Dallas Texas
- “Donald Sultan, Recent Work" Galleria Lawrence Rubin, Milano, Italy
- 2015
- "August Flowers" James Barron Art, Kent Gallery, Kent, Connecticut:
- “Antropia” Eduardo Secci Contemporary, Pietrasanta, Italy
- “Screenprints, Silkscreens, and Serigraphs” Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, New York
- 2013
- “New Work”, The Drawing Room, East Hampton, New York
- “Summer Salad” Janet Borden, INC., New York, New York
- 2012
- "Cross- Border” Galerie Andres-Thalmann, Engadine, Switzerland
- “Color Works” Heather Gaudio Fine Art, Greenwich, Connecticut
- “New Season, New Address” The Drawing Room, East Hampton, New York
- 2011
- “Celebrated Artists: Students of Marvin Saltzman” The Mahler Fine Art, Raleigh, North Carolina
- “American Chambers”, Gyeongnam Art Museum, Changwon, Korea
- 2010
- “Winter Show”, Galerie Andres-Thalmann, Engadine, Switzerland
- “Exquisite Corpse”, Gasser-Grunert Gallery, New York, New York:
- 2009
- “Fifty Works for the First State: Works from the Dorothy and Howard Vogel Collection” Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware:
- 2008
- “Here’s The Thing: the Single Object Still Life” Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York
- “Gifted: Recent Additions to the Permanent Collection” Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware:
- 2007
- “Landscape: Form and Thought”, Ingrao Gallery, New York, New York
- “Substance and Surface”, Bortolami Gallery, New York, New York
- 2006
- "Garden Paradise” The Arsenal Gallery, New York, New York
- “Neil Jenney + Donald Sultan: The Art Bar" Ingrao Gallery, New York, New York
- “The Food Show: The Hungry Eye” Chelsea Art Museum, New York, New York:
- 2003
- “Drawing Relationships" Knoedler & Company, New York, New York
- 2002
- “Contemporary American Art: Art in Embassies Program” Embassy of the United States of America, Vienna
- “Art Downtown” Wall Street Rising at 45 Wall Street, New York, New York
- 2001
- “Celebrating Modern Art: The Anderson Collection” SFMOMA, San Francisco, California
- “Cote d’Azur: Art, Modernity and the Myth of the French Riviera” AXA Gallery, New York, New York:
- “Digital Printmaking Now” Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York
- 2000
- “Especes d’Arbres: Visions of Nature in Contemporary Art" Denise Cade Gallery, New York, New York:
- “Art of the 80’s” Winston Wachter Mayer Fine Art, New York, New York
- Summer 2000 Prints" David Adamson Gallery, Washington D.C.
- 2011
- Lifetime Achievement Award, Houston Fine Art Fair, Houston, Texas
- 2010
- North Carolina Award for the Arts North Carolina
- 2007
- Honorary doctorate degree, University of North Carolina, Asheville
- 2002
- Honorary doctorate degree, New York Academy of Art, NY
- 2000
- Honorary doctorate degree, Corcoran School of Art, Washington, D.C.
- 1992
- Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of North Carolina
- 1980
- National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowship
- 1979
- Creative Artists Public Service Grant, New York
- International Modern Art Foundation, Belgium
- The Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
- Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts
- Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
- The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
- Australian National Gallery, Australia
- Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio
- Cleveland Art Museum, Cleveland, Ohio
- Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Texas
- Denver Art Museum, Denver Colorado
- Ludwig Museum Budapest, Hungary
- Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Tobataku Kitakyushu, Japan
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- The Modern Museum of Art, New York
- The Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
- Nelson – Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri
- Singapore Museum of Art, Singapore
- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
- The St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri
- Tate Gallery, London
- Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota