John Dugger was born in Los Angeles in 1948. He spent a year at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before setting out for Europe in 1967. In London, he was part of the avant-garde group Exploding Galaxy in the late 1960s. He exhibited his artists’ multiples, the Perennials, at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1970, and the tankas and ritual objects he collected during his travels in Nepal with fellow artist David Medalla were shown at the Hayward Gallery in 1971. In the early 1970s, Dugger began to work with cut-fabric appliqué banners, and organised collaborative/participatory projects such as People Weave a House in 1973. His earliest sculptures, what he called 'ergonic' or energy constructions, were first shown at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford and Documenta 5 in Kassel, Germany, where he designed a pavilion dedicated to participation art.

Dugger travelled widely during this time, visiting China during the Cultural Revolution and he lived in Asia, Paris and London.  A theme that has concerned him for several decades since then is what he describes as ‘the participatory relation of activity and the senses’, as seen in his Sports Banners of the 1970s and '80s. His banners have been commissioned by numerous institutions and organizations, including the Arts Council of Great Britain, the House of Commons, the Gulbenkian Foundation, and Tate, London.

The Mountain Banners series began in 1985, when Dugger first transferred a mountain drawing he had made on the spot to a black canvas that became the central image of a banner. As these mountain images evolved, he went on to study with a banner master in Ladakh at the invitation of the Dalai Lama, who chose one of Dugger’s banners for his International Year of Tibet in 1991. These works are inspired by Dugger’s passion for mountaineering, by the art of Tibet and ancient China, and by the Western Alpinist tradition of expeditionary drawing.

The banners that Dugger exhibited at England & Co in November 2007 were the results of his expeditions to the Himalayas and the San Juan Mountains and Grand Teton in the American Rockies. These works are drawn on site – often at altitudes of several thousand feet – and are later completed with fabric frames and hung with his own Soft-Rig tie system. Dugger describes these works as 'Futuristic Mountainism' and sees them as celebrations of the common ground shared by artist and mountaineer.

* John Dugger's Time-Zones banner in the Government Art Collection >>

PERFORMANCES, EXHIBITIONS, INSTALLATIONS, COMMISSIONS & ART ACTIONS

2010	Forthcoming: This Could Happen to You: Ikon in the 1970s at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; opens 20 July. Forthcoming: John Dugger at England & Co Gallery, October.
2009	Textiles: Art and the Social Fabric, group show, Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA), Antwerp, Belgium. Tibetan Names Memorial Quilts, participation-project with TANC, Berkeley. Expeditionary Drawing & Banners, solo show, Ruskin House, Brantwood, Coniston UK.
2008	Mount Analogue, solo show, Steven Wolf Fine Arts, San Francisco. Mayflower II Re-visited - Valise d’Participation, London Biennale event in Paris.
2007	Expeditionary Mountain Banners, solo show, England & Co, London. Living Artists of the Alpine Club, John Mitchell Gallery, Old Bond St, London.
2006	Purple Majesty Expedition, Telluride Festival, Telluride, Colorado.
2005	Kanchenjunga 50th Anniversary, group show, Alpine Club, London. Mountain Banner Arts, Banff Festival, Alberta, Canada.
2004	Mount Everest, installation, Rheged Centre, Cumbria, UK. Mountains on Banners, solo show, Kendal Festival, Cumbria, UK. Mountain Banners, solo show, Alpine Club, London. Art and Mountains – Conquistadors of the Useless, group show, Alpine Club, London.
2002	Banner Peak, High Sierra expedition and banner project, Berkeley.
2001	Live in Your Head, Museum of Contemporary Art, Lisbon.
2000	Live in Your Head, Whitechapel Gallery, London.
1999	Magic Square, centerpiece banner commission for Oracle Corporation HQ, California. Kalachakra for World Peace, banner installation for Dalai Lama, Bloomington, Indiana.
1996	Masks, group show for the Prince of Wales, Hayward Gallery, London. Flags Film – World Cup, commission for Coca-Cola Worldwide, USA.
1991	Tibet Mountainscape, banner installation for the Dalai Lama, New York.
1989	L'inverse '89, group show, La Villette, Paris. After 1789, group show, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, UK. Founded Banner Arts USA, San Francisco.
1987	Façade Banner Set, commission for Royal Festival Hall, London.
1986	Centrepiece Banner, commission for USA Embassy, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Jobs & Industry Banner, House of Commons, London. HM Queen’s Birthday Banners, commission for Buckingham Palace, London.
1985	The Red Wedge commission for Paul Weller & Red Wedge, London. The Maker’s Eye, group show, Crafts Council Gallery, London.
1984	Kunstlerfahnan, group show, Mehr Kunst fur Bonn, Germany.
1983-86	Centrepiece Banners, commission for GLC, London County Hall, London.
1983	Art for Architecture, group show, Latham Associates, London.
1982-86	Exhibition Centre Bahrain, commissions for Andry Montgomery Ltd, London.
1981	Artist’s Books, with Derek Boshier, Felicity Samuels Gallery, London.
1980	Recent Acquisitions, group show, Tate Gallery, London. Annual Exhibition, group show, Contemporary Arts Society, London. Sports Banners, solo show, ICA, London.
1979	The Jets, The Clash, commission for CBS Records, London. Lives, group show, Arts Council of Great Britain, Hayward Gallery, London.
1978	Art for Society, group show, Whitechapel Gallery, London. Chile Patchworks, exhibition with Guy Brett, AIR Gallery, London. The Visual Artist and the Law, banner and installation for Art Law, London.
1977	Wu Shu Kwan, banner and installation Flaxman Sports Centre, London. The Drummers, banner and installation, Notting Hill Carnival, London.
1976	Founded Banner Arts, London. A Vitoria E Certa, banner installation, Black Panther Party HQ, Oakland, California. Banners!, installation and workshop, La Pena Cultural Center, Berkeley, California.
1975	Chile Vencera, banner installation, Glide Memorial Church, San Francisco.
1974	Chile Vencera, banner installation, Trafalgar Square, London.
1973	Ergonic Workshop & Other Works, Artists Meeting Place, London. People Weave A House!, Alternative São Paulo Biennale, Brazil. Woven Architecture, solo show, Architectural Association, London. Participation Art Event, Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland.
1972	People Weave A House!, participation production project,  ICA, London. People’s Participation Pavilion, with David Medalla, Documenta 5, Kassel, Germany.
1971	Founded Artists Liberation Front, London. Microcosm, solo show, Sigi Krauss Gallery, London. 3 →∞ = Multiples, group show, Whitechapel Gallery, London. Pioneers of Participation Art, group show, MOMA, Oxford, UK.
1970	The Potato Eaters, action with David Medalla, Mayflower II, River Seine, Paris.
1969	Buddha Ballet, performance with David Medalla, Hampstead Heath, London.
1968	Butterfly Dream, performance with David Medalla, Trafalgar Square, London.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Third Text, art review by Guy Brett, London, 2009.

with by through because towards despite, Harald Szeemann, Springer Wien, New York, 2007.

Artist of the Alpine Club, Peter Mallalieu, The Alpine Club, London, 2007.

The Alpine Journal, Vol 111, Rural Pen, John Dugger, London, 2007.

Carnival of Perception, Guy Brett, Inivia Press, London, 2004.

new spirit, new sculpture, new money, Richard Cork, Yale University Press, 2003.

Left Shift – Radical Art in 1970s Britain, John A. Walker, IR Tauris, London, 2002.

Fabric Architecture, No 30, USA, 1999.

Fabric Architecture, No 3, USA, 1995.

New Socialist, No 48, London, 1987.

The Independent, art review by Janet Evans, London, 1987.

Construction, No 59, London, 1987.

International Who’s Who, 49th Edition, Europa Publications, London, 1986.

Real Life Magazine, No 15, New York, 1986.

Company, May issue, London, 1986.

Ideas for Fabric Design, Linda Flowers, Studio Vista, London, 1986.

Building Design, No 767, London, 1985.

Art Line, profile by Mark von Joel, London, 1985.

Designing, No 10, London, 1985.

A Day in the Life of London, Malcolm McGregor, Phaidon, London, 1984.

Art in the Age of the Mass Media, John A. Walker, Pluto Press, London, 1983.

Interiors, January Issue, London, 1982.

The Art of Martial Arts, Peter Payne, Thames & Hudson, London, 1981.

Sunday Times, 1980.

International Herald Tribune, art review by Richard Cork, Paris, 1980.

Art of the Seventies, Edward Lucie-Smith, Phaidon, London, 1980.

Art International, April issue, London, 1979.

Art Monthly, No 25, London, 1979.

Cultural Calendar of the 20th Century, Edward Lucie-Smith, Phaidon London, 1979.

Guardian, 1977.

Trafalgar Square, Rodney Mace, Lawrence Weishart, London, 1976.

The Times, art review by Guy Brett, London, UK, 1973.

Art: Action & Participation, Frank Popper, Studio Vista, London, 1973.

Art & Artists, No 84, London, 1973.

Flash Art, Documenta 5 Issue, Milan, Italy, 1972.

L’art Vivant, No 29, Paris, 1972.

Art & Artists, No 6., London, 1972.

Rhobo, Issue No 8, Paris, 1971.

France Soir, issue 20 Nov., Account of life-saving in River Seine, Paris, 1970.

AWARDS AND GRANTS

1978-80	Contextual-Art Banner Project, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, London.
1978	Major grant for Banner Arts Studio, Arts Council of Great Britain, London.
1977	Banner Arts Project, Greater London Arts Association, London.
1971	Participation-Project Award, Arts Council of Great Britain, London.

STUDY

2005-06	MA (Dist.), Enterprise & Management, University of the Arts, London.
1993	Tibetan Banner-Making, Namgyal Monastery, Dharamsala, India.
1970	Reader in Asian Art, Musée Guimet, Paris.
1966-67	School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
1963-66	Gilmore Art Institute, Kalamazoo, Michigan.