Collector And Artist Dennis Scholl Debuts New Work In Miami This March

Upcoming exhibition of new mixed-media works by artist Dennis Scholl is set to open at Piero Atchugarry Gallery in Miami this March 15.

Scholl—who served as the leader of Oolite Arts and the Knight Foundation for years—is a legendary figure in the Miami arts community. In addition to his nonprofit work, Scholl is a major art collector (with works by Roy Lichtenstein, Olafur Ellison, Mark Bradford, Sarah Morris, Tacita Dean, Robert Motherwell) and a documentary filmmaker focused on arts and culture who has received 22 regional Emmys.

Now, the multihyphenate transforms his lifelong practice of collecting into an artistic pursuit. Specifically, Scholl creates assemblage pieces composed of carefully selected historical ephemera—like rare newspapers, magazines, books, and photographs—to preserve and reimagine our collective past.

Scholl’s works often center on a significant historical or cultural event, and how such events are processed through media attention and collective reckoning. Watershed moments like JFK’s assassination (Untitled (Assassination), 2023), and the death of Michael Jackson (Untitled (Glove), 2024) are shown through assorted artifacts arranged in a dodecagon shape. These items transport the viewer back to their personal memory of where they were during these events, or the stories heard from people who experienced them in real-time.

The works in this exhibition also explore older models of information distribution. The newspaper works recall a time when one would get your news from a single source or through headlines at the grocery store line, a method that seems so simple in our evergrowing algorithms and muddied online news sources. Scholl’s piece Untitled (Charles Dickens) draws this line of exploration further into the past, showing the chapters of a Dickens novel that were distributed as serialized parts, instead of readily available paper-backs.

Scholl’s practice is in harmony with his life as a collector, sourcing his materials through his usual networks of auction houses and other collectors. His artworks recontextualize the practice of collecting as a purposeful accumulation of materials that, when seen in total, say something about the collector and the way they interact with the world around them.

 

Photo Above: Dennis Scholl, Untitled (Assassination), 2023, acquired objects and graphite, 45” x 45” x 2”. Courtesy of Dennis Scholl and Piero Atchugarry Gallery

Story Courtesy of Piero Atchugarry Gallery

Date Posted: February 27, 2025