Notes from the Ben Maltz Gallery press release for the exhibit Two Madmen: The Art of Clive Barker and Myron Dyal
Otis College of Art and Design in the Bolsky Gallery, curated by Greg Escalante and Meg Linton
....drawings, paintings, and sculptures illustrate alternate realms
filled with archetypal figures and places that have littered human
consciousness for centuries. They take us through the darkest forests
into the depths of their imaginations where we see tricksters,
soothsayers, mystics, and guardians as we walk through Elysian Fields
and trespass in the underworld....
Dyal is a modern mystic, classically trained musician, and a
self-taught
Southern California artist. He has
spiritual visions that are the catalysts for the vast oeuvre of his work that
spans nearly three decades and includes more than 6,000 drawings, paintings,
and sculptures. When he was four years old he awoke from a three month long
coma, which his parents believed to be caused by demon possession. At that
point, he says his mind was erased, his visions began, and he had Epilepsy.
Dyal’s imagery is primal, dark, and folkloric. He uses papier-mâché to create
life sized sculpture, because its immediacy accommodates his urgency to see his
objects in three-dimensional form. His figurative and organic forms are derived
from visions he experienced during epileptic seizures and self-induced trances
that have aided him in dealing with his condition. Dyal had kept his prolific
production of art secret for many years until he had his first solo
exhibition at the
Grand
Central
Art
Center
in
Santa Ana.