Presented by the Oakland Museum of California Professional Services division
Professional Services Exhibition Archive

Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) Off-Site presents Randy Dixon: Dream Houses at The Sculpture Court in Oakland City Center. This exhibition features the mixed media, architecturally inspired sculptures by Oakland artist, Randy Dixon.

Dixon’s mysterious Dream Houses represent the artist’s explorations into an imagined world where the irrational changes place with the rational. He examines the meaning attached to ordinary building elements, and how their significance is altered when displaced from their original context.

Each work is intended to be neither a representation of architecture nor architecture itself; it is archiSculpture, Dixon’s term for sculpture that uses the language of architecture for sculptural exploration. An architect by trade, Dixon has long been intrigued by structures that hold the promise of refuge. He explains, “As a college student in Illinois, I would see wind-swept, vacant corncribs and outbuildings to farms on the road to and from school. These twisted, semi-transparent, wood structures suggested living forms that were heaving their last breath. They were shells of their beings containing a memory of the past.”

Dixon maintains that his interest in the term ‘Dream House’ lies not in its connotation of the ideal living space, but rather in the language that each building element contributes to the overall meaning of a structure. The elements take on associative properties, becoming metaphors of life. A door may be a door to the future, one to close out the past, or a revolving door that leads nowhere. Likewise, a stair may connect a basement of refuge to an attic of memories, or as in an Escheresque stair, may lead back to the beginning.

Another compelling facet of Dixon’s archiSculpture is its apparent disregard for gravity. The illusion of the removal of a structure from its foundation, a place of stability and resistance to forces, is created by Dixon in an effort to transform reality to fantasy. In this way, he hopes to express the fleeting and unfolding experiences every one of us has with dreams.

In 1984, Dixon received an MFA in Painting from the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA. He also holds advanced degrees in Science and Architecture from Illinois State University and the University of Illinois, respectively. Dixon has shown in numerous exhibitions, including the Gregory Lind Gallery, San Francisco; The Paulist Center, Boston, MA; the California College of Arts and Crafts; and The Sculpture Group Gallery, Danville, CA. His honors include the IFRAA Merit Award, BENE Award, Art Glass and the Francis J. Plym Traveling Fellowship.

Organized by the Professional Services division of the Oakland Museum of California.