“These works transform the commonplace shipping Pallet, long invisible to the viewer, into a completely reborn visual art statement. The found pallet was only a secondary, bit player in the material delivery system. Hildt moves that bit player to center stage in a starring role – albeit with a new presence. Using found objects, appropriated ideas from Dada, ready-mades and Warholian found-object soup cans, Hildt continues to place the common into a new situ by reframing the pallet with a higher level of color, shape and aesthetic sensibility. Thus, a new pathway is open to our visual acumen. Like all works of Art, when the maker declares “done!”, the Work stands alone beyond both the Maker and the Viewer, and, is left to resonate to its world.” 
--Clifford Chieffo, Emeritus Professor of Art, Georgetown University

Dan Hildt’s work is influenced by his career in architectural drafting, graphic design, and construction project management.  He draws inspiration from crumbling building facades, ocean-worn shell bits and faded asphalt street mosaics. In this exhibition, “The Pallet Series,” he offers the humble shipping pallet as a worthy candidate for further study and appreciation.

DAN HILDT (b. 1951) is a mixed-media artist. Born in Glen Cove, New York and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, he attended Georgetown University in Washington, DC. In 1973, he received his BFA degree (Studio Fine Arts, Painting and Drawing under Cliff Chieffo, MFA). His art can be traced to his employment history -- first as an architectural draftsman, then 24 years as the founder and owner of a graphics design firm in Washington, DC. Dedicating himself to the fine art studio in 2009, he has since explored a variety of different mediums – from a series of works in asphalt and stone (StreetWorks, 2009), with an examination of the crumbling building facades of Terezin, a Nazi ghetto and concentration camp in the Czech Republic (Terezin – What Remains, 2013), to graphic designs on canvas using luminescent-painted ocean worn clam shell bits (LuminEssence, 2010). His works have been exhibited by numerous galleries in the Mid-Atlantic region as well as the Netherlands, where he is a member of Bos Fine Art (Utrecht). He is also a member of the Washington Sculptors Group (Washington, DC) as well as Del Ray Artisans (Alexandria, Virginia USA).