Dennis "Denny" H. Farber (March 8, 1946 – May 8, 2017) was an American painter, photographer and educator. Faber was the director of the Mount Royal School of Art at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) from 2000 to 2004 and co-chair of MICA’s Foundations department from 2010 to 2011.
About He received a B.A. from Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1968 and an M.F.A. from Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California, in 1975.
Farber was a recipient New York Foundation for the Arts Grant in 1987. He was also awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Grant in 1995, two residencies at Yaddo in 2004 and 2008, Saratoga Springs, New York, and awarded a Mid Atlantic Council for the Arts Grant in 2005.
Farber's photographs run the gamut from street photography to manipulated images to painted photographs many of which are abstract. The majority of his photographs are large format 20 in × 24 in Polaroid prints. Most of his paintings are completely abstract, such as The Death of President Coolidge in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art.
Farber’s photographic work was a part of photography’s expanding boundaries in the 1970s and 1980s. Most of Farber’s pictures came from his collages of found images and re-photographed on the 20 × 24 Polaroid camera. He participated in Polaroid Corporation’s Artist Support Program. In 1992 his large format Polaroids were showcased in MoMA’s New Photography 8 exhibition. The same year his work was one six contemporary artists’ works in The Jewish Museum’s widely traveled exhibit, Bridges and Boundaries, African Americans and American Jews. The work was also included in The Edge of Childhood, Heckscher Museum, Huntington, New York, I, Diane Brown Gallery, New York, New York, The Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, which began the year before at MoMA, New York. Farber’s large format Polaroids were also included in OPEN ENDS, Innocence and Experience, Museum of Modern Art’s, (New York, New York) millennial exhibit.
Educator He was a professor at Iolani School, Honolulu, Hawaii, from 1969 to 1971, the University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico, from 1993 to 1998 and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore, Maryland, from 1998 to 2016.
Farber was also an influential teacher, first at the Iolani School, then at both undergraduate and graduate levels at the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque) from 1993 to 1998, and the Maryland Institute College of Art from 1998 to 2010 in the Foundation and Painting Departments. He also directed MICA’s Mount Royal Graduate School of Art from 2000 to 2004. While living in New York he taught as an adjunct at New York University (NYU). He served as an Associate Dean at both the University of New Mexico (College of Fine Art) and MICA (for the Foundation Department).
Collections +Select public museum collectionsMuseumLocationWorkNotesBaltimore Museum of ArtBaltimore, MarylandBrooklyn MuseumBrooklyn, New YorkOxidized Memories (Pittsburgh, PA) (n.d.)Carnegie Museum of ArtPittsburgh, PennsylvaniaCenter for Creative PhotographyTucson, ArizonaColumbus Museum of ArtColumbus, OhioCorcoran Gallery of ArtWashington, DCHonolulu Museum of ArtHonolulu, Ohau, HawaiiInternational Center of PhotographyNew York City, New YorkJewish MuseumNew York City, New YorkLong Beach Museum of ArtLong Beach, CaliforniaLos Angeles County Museum of ArtLos Angeles, CaliforniaWrapped in Stone (1986)Museum of Fine Arts, HoustonHouston, TexasDivided Conscience (1986-1987)Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)New York City, New YorkMuseum of New MexicoSanta Fe, New MexicoOrange County Museum of ArtNewport Beach, CaliforniaTokyo Metropolitan Museum of PhotographyTokyo, JapanThe Party (1988), Radiant Child (1991)
References Heartney, Eleanor, Centric 34, Catalog; Dennis Farber, 1989 The New Yorker, Photography Review, April 12, 1993 Tokyo Museum of Art, American Perspectives, Photographs from the Polaroid Collection, 2000, Village Voice, Choices, Dennis Farber, May 28, 1991 Village Voice, Choices, Dennis Farber, March 9, 1993
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