Found and Lost is a solo exhibition by American artist John Dilg, taking place at Taymour Grahne Projects in Dubai until 9 April 2026. It brings together a new body of paintings and works on paper that extend Dilg’s long-standing engagement with landscape as a site of memory, symbolism, and quiet ecological reflection.
In the show, Dilg constructs contemplative environments composed of recurring elemental motifs: waterfalls, islands, forests, icebergs, and solitary trees. Rendered in muted palettes and delicate lines, these scenes appear both familiar and dreamlike, occupying a space between observation and recollection. Rather than depicting specific locations, the artist distils fragments of landscape into symbolic arrangements where each element carries a subtle narrative charge. Eyes embedded within a tree trunk or a moon above still water function as quiet signals of presence, solitude, and the lingering traces of memory within nature.
Employing primarily oil, charcoal, and graphite, Dilg builds his surfaces through layered marks that allow drawing and painting to coexist. The texture of the canvas remains visible, lending the works a tactile, almost geological quality. This material sensitivity, combined with subdued tonal atmospheres, creates spaces that feel at once intimate and expansive, inviting viewers into slow and attentive looking.
Water emerges as a recurring motif throughout the exhibition, appearing in the form of rivers, ponds, seas, and waterfalls. For Dilg, water operates both visually and metaphorically: as a conduit for transformation and a carrier of memory. The exhibition’s title reflects this duality: landscapes are places where things are discovered yet gradually disappear, echoing the fragile relationship between humans and the natural world.
About the artist
John Dilg (b. 1945, Evanston, Illinois, USA) studied painting and filmmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design before receiving a Fulbright scholarship to India. He later taught for many years at the University of Iowa, where he is now Professor Emeritus. Over the course of several decades, Dilg’s practice has evolved from early abstraction into a distinctive form of symbolic landscape painting that merges personal memory, folk sensibilities, and environmental awareness.
The artist has displayed his works in many exhibitions, which include The Sky is thin. Drawings (STANDARD, Oslo, Norway, 2023); Perspex: american shift (FL Gallery, Spazio 22, Milan, Italy, 2019); NADA Art Fair (New York, NY, 2014); and Mussstaaangg Saltlitly (TCB Art, Melbourne, Australia, 2010), among others. His art is part of esteemed public collections, such as the Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, AL, USA), Figge Art Museum (Davenport, IA, USA), and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Villafamés (MACVAC) (Vilafamés, Spain).
To get more information about Found and Lost, please visit the official web page of the show.
You might also be interested in viewing Invisible Fish by Saif Azzuz and Remnants by Kais Salman.
