Ever since he was a child, Ren Dillard has been an artist. His first memory is of creating a piece of artwork on the cover of a phone book which his mother proudly hung up on the fridge before calling all her friends and relatives over to take a look. “I remember thinking to myself ‘wow, I’m an artist,’” Dillard recalled.
Dillard grew up in Savannah, Georgia and attended Savannah State University where he majored in Mass Communications. After graduation he found his way to working in radio, before eventually relocating to Philadelphia.
“That’s actually what really sparked my professional career,” remarked Dillard, “that’s where I had my first art show.” During his tenure in Philadelphia he was inspired and moved by the colorful murals splashed across the city’s walls.
“I remember thinking to myself, ‘I can do that.’ I’ve always been an artist, you know, but I didn’t really understand the gravity of it until I was immersed in the culture of Philadelphia.”
He was honored with his first ever solo show in the city at SMILE GALLERY, and he said he “couldn’t have had a better first show.” Though only a couple of pieces sold from the exhibit, the elation that he felt just seeing his work in a real gallery was enough to light a fire under him that continues burning to this day.
Dillard made his way back to Georgia about 12 years ago, when one of his very best friends was suddenly diagnosed with a rapid onset of cancer. “I kept feeling like I needed to get back down to Georgia, but I didn’t know why,” he said, describing the feeling as if the wind was at his back. Within days of his arrival, his friend entered the hospital and never returned home.
Dillard spent three months at his friend’s bedside, reading to him from his favorite spiritual and philosophical books. You see, throughout all the ups and downs of Dillard’s life, philosophy has been one of his major areas of focus. For his friend, faced with his own mortality, the concepts Dillard shared offered a shred of peace during his final days. For Dillard, the experience reminded him that he wanted to be closer to his family and friends.
And so, he moved once again to Atlanta, which was close enough to be present for his loved ones but far enough away for him to continue on his own personal journey of growth and artistic achievement.
“Also, Atlanta has enough of a collector base to support my work, that was really important as well,” said Dillard. “Outside of Atlanta I can’t think of any other cities in Georgia that can support an artist full-time.”
In the years since, Dillard has been steadily working to get his name out there, network with fellow artists and gallerists, and continue pushing his art to evolve and grow along with him. Though he originally made works using common materials he could easily find at craft supply stores, such as oil and acrylic paints, over time his practice has led him to incorporating precious metals in his pieces.
Today, he’s preparing to attend the Grand Opening reception featuring his works at the new joint gallery space with Mason Fine Art and Marcia Wood Gallery.
I asked Dillard what it is about metallic substances in his art that he found so appealing. He explained that not only does the reflective quality of metal change a piece’s appearance throughout the day, but it also offers a reflection of the viewer which essentially makes them part of the piece.
Dillard also leans heavily into the idea of alchemy, which is the ancient practice of transforming base materials like lead into gold. To transform an object from non-valuable to valuable is something that resonated with Dillard – who also pointed out the correlation to the transformation of a blank canvas into a piece of art – and the theme began to have an impact on his practice.
“One through-line that still persists in my work is trying to translate philosophy and higher philosophic ideals to people who look like me. There are a lot of brothers I know that I know are out there playing basketball and are never exposed to these grandiose philosophical ideas about the meaning of life. If my work means anything it’s to translate those ideas to people who wouldn’t think about it otherwise,” said Dillard. “It started out that way and it’s still a central theme in my work.”
A selection of Dillard’s works are currently hung on the walls of the new joint gallery space shared by Mason Fine Art and Marcia Wood Gallery on Miami Circle. While the majority of the works reflect his mixed media style, depicting mostly Black female figures in various settings attending an all-white party, ascending above the skyline of a city, in an intimate embrace, there are also several that showcase Dillard’s evolution toward silhouettes.
Dillard explained that the alchemy and transfusion present in his works is also a nod to the experience of Black people in Western society. “The Black people in particular on this continent have been under so much pressure since we first set foot on this soil,” Dillard explained.
“Pressure can either burst pipes or create diamonds. I like to think that this work is a representation of the pressure creating diamonds. A lot of the figures have halos, which in Renaissance paintings indicates enlightenment or divinity. My idea is that all of the pressure that Black people have been put under on this soil; I like to think that the fruition of it is us actually blossoming into these divine beings.”
On an average day, Dillard is working on 5-6 pieces simultaneously. “Sometimes what I’ll do is spend two months cutting, cutting, cutting, and I have bins in my studio with body parts, heads, buildings,” he said with a laugh.
He starts each piece by laying the ground, choosing which metallic shades the background will be, and then arranges the in-progress pieces in his studio so that he will have to walk past them. Dillard told me that he doesn’t usually know what the composition will become, and instead he allows the ideas to come to him. “Slowly but surely they start to emerge.”
Expressing himself in multiple mediums, including oil paintings, collage, and spoken word, he continues to explore themes of philosophy and futurism. Some of his favorite philosophers include Alan Watts, Joseph Campbell, and Dr. Frances Cress Welsing. He explained that it is important for the audience to not only see themselves represented in the work, but especially in positions of enlightenment, freedom, and evolution.
“It’s going to touch everybody differently, and I think that’s important,” mused Dillard. “At the end of the day, art is perspective.”
Beyond the Grand Opening Reception at Mason Fine Art this Friday night, Nov. 15 from 6-9 p.m., Dillard is steady working on curating another exhibition with his friend and colleague Tracy Murrell.
The fourth iteration of “The Next 100 Years,” a group show at Path Museum, is planned for sometime in Spring of 2025. Featuring “some of the dopest African American artists in Atlanta” according to Dillard, the exhibition will explore visions of a future that may yet come to pass.
