Jane Dickson

Jane Dickson (b. 1952) is an American painter and artist celebrated for her vivid, often haunting, depictions of American culture and urban life. A key figure in New York’s late-1970s and 1980s counterculture, Dickson was a member of influential artist collectives and famously worked as a programmer for the first electronic billboard in Times Square. From this unique vantage point, she created a powerful body of work documenting the area’s gritty, neon-lit reality. Using unconventional surfaces like vinyl, felt, and sandpaper, she captures the “psychogeography” of places—from peep shows and carnivals to suburban homes—in a style that is both impressionistic and socially incisive. Her work is held in the permanent collections of major institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.