Moira Dryer


Moira Dryer was a Canadian artist known for her abstract paintings on wood panels that bridged the gap between Conceptual Art and contemporary painting with a playful and poetic approach.
Dryer was born the youngest of three children in Toronto, Canada. Her mother, Pegeen Synge, was an architect and her father, Douglas Dryer. was a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto. Dryer attended Sir George Williams University in Montreal before moving to New York City to attend the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. At SVA she was a student of the painter Elizabeth Murray in 1978 and 1980 and became a friends and a studio assistant to Murray. She also became a studio assistant to the Neo-expressionist painter Julian Schnabel. Dryer graduated from SVA with honors in 1981.
Before working full time as painter, Dryer was a freelance prop and scenic design maker, and set designer for the avant-garde theater company Mabou Mines.
In 1982, Dryer married fellow painter and SVA classmate Victor Alzamora. Alzamora died of a congenital heart condition in 1983 at the age of 29.
Moira Dryer died of cancer at her home in New York City on May 20, 1992.

Exhibitions

Dryer had her first solo exhibition in 1986 at the John Good Gallery. Subsequent exhibitions include shows at Mary Boone Gallery in Manhattan; Fred Hoffman Gallery in Santa Monica, California; Mario Diacono Gallery in Boston; Jay Gorney Modern Art in Manhattan; Eleven Rivington in Manhattan and Magenta Plains in Manhattan.
During her lifetime, Dryer had one-person exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She was the focus of a Museum of Modern Art Focus exhibition curated by former Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture Robert Storr.

Solo and two-person exhibitions

2025

Moira Dryer: Perpetual Painting, Magenta Plains, New York
2014

Moira Dryer Project, Eleven Rivington, New York
2000

Moira Dryer, curated by Gregory Salzman; Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis ; Art Gallery of York University, Toronto ; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA ; The Contemporary Museum, Baltimore
1998

Moira Dryer & Shirley Wiitasalo, Greene Natfali Gallery, New York
1997

The Point of Departure: Moira Dryer / Jessica Stockholder; Gallery of Art, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS
Gallery 400, University of Illinois Chicago
1995

Estate Paintings; Jay Gorney Modern Art, New York
1993

Estate Paintings; Jay Gorney Modern Art, New York

Projects 42: Moira Dryer; The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1992

Mary Boone Gallery, New York
1991

Fred Hoffman Gallery, New York

Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston
1990

Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston

Mary Boone Gallery, New York
1989

New Work: Moira Dryer, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
1988

John Good Gallery, New York
1987

Hoffman Borman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
1986

John Good Gallery, New York

Group exhibitions

2017
Fast Forward: Painting from the 1980s, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Jan 27-May 14, 2017
2013

Four Women and a Kosuth, James Barron Art, New York, September 13–22, 2013

I, You, We, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 25–September 1, 2013
2011

The Indiscipline of Painting Tate St. Ives, Cornwall, touring to Warwick Art Centre

Circa 1986, The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, New York

A Painting Show, Harris Lieberman, New York
2008

Charismatic Abstraction, James W. and Lois I. Richmond Center for Visual Arts, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, October 30–November 25, 2008
2007

Two Years, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 17, 2007 – February 17, 2008
2006

Women's Work: Paintings 1970–1990, Greenberg Van Doren, New York

Hunters & Gatherers: The Art of Collecting, The Shore Institute of the Contemporary Arts, Asbury Park, New Jersey
2005

The Painted World, MoMA PS1, New York
2001

As Painting: Division and Displacement, curated by Philip Armstrong, Laura Lisbon and Stephen Melville; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio

Side Show, curated by Augusto Arbizo; Lawrence Rubin-Greenberg Van Doren-Fine Art, New York
2000

D, Sandra Gering Gallery, New York, curated by Robert Nickas
1999

The Stroke: An Overview of Contemporary Painting, curated by Ross Bleckner, Exit Art, New York
1998

Jay Gorney Modern Art, New York
1997

Coming Home Again, curated by Jeanne Siegel for the 50th Anniversary of the School of Visual Arts; Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY

After the Fall: Aspects of Abstract Painting since 1970, curated by Lily Wei; Visual Arts Gallery, New York
1996

Some Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Playpen & Corpus Delirium, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich

Reconditioned Abstraction, curated by Martin Ball; Forum for Contemporary Art, St, Louis

Painting In An Expanding Field, organized by Saul Ostrow; Usdan Gallery, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont

Natural Process, Center Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisberg, PA; Williams Center for the Arts, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania
1995

Pittura-mmedia, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, Austria

A Selected Survey, 1983-1995, Pat Hearn Gallery, New York
1994

New York Abstract Painting, Salvatore Ala Gallery, New York
1993

Italia – America: L’astrazione ridefinita, Galeria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, San Marino
1992

Abstract Painting 1992; Schmidt Contemporary Art, St. Louis
1991

Moira Dryer, Roni Horn, Sherrie Levine, Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston
1990

Gallery Group Exhibition, Lawrence Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia
1989

A Decade of American Drawing: 1980-89, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Santa Monica
1988

Lawrence Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia

The Other Painting, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Gallery, Toronto

The Image of Abstraction The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

Tom Cugliani Gallery, New York

In Side, Barbara Kraków Gallery, Boston

School of Visual Arts Alumni Exhibition, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York

Pat Hearn Gallery, New York

Ironic Abstraction, University of South Florida Art Galleries, Tampa
1987

Stimulation, John Good Gallery, New York

Grand Design, Proctor Art Center, Bard College, Annandale-on Hudson, NY

True Pictures, New York Studio School, New York

Jennifer Bolande, Moira Dryer, Annette Lemieux, Lawrence Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia
1986

Selections, Artists Space, New York

Paintings/Objects, Postmasters Gallery, New York

Recent Abstract Painting, John Good Gallery, New York

Cash/Newhouse Gallery, New York
1985

New American Abstraction, John Good Gallery, New York
1984

New York, New Work, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York
1983

Limbo Lounge, New York
1982

Visionary Landscape, P.S. 122, New York

YYZ Gallery, Toronto

White Room, White Columns, New York
1981

Visual Arts Gallery, New York
1980

Proposal Gallery, Baltimore

Group Material, New York

Public collections