Home Artist Programs Supported Artists Bob Dilworth

Bob Dilworth

Providence, Rhode Island

Play depicts two young Black girls, one all in blue laying prone with arms outstretched above, as the other in red and black crouches over her with two fingers on her neck as if checking her pulse. Floral brocade patterns extend from and surround them in bright blues, greens, and pinks.

Play

2023

Sylvia depicts 5 views of a Black woman standing and 2 Black men seated with an elbow on knee among dense foliage and flowers, with varied facial expressions and gestures, in a detailed, painterly style.

Sylvia

2021

Bear Witness depicts a man on a ladder paints five identical figures of a Black man standing in a row with various gestures and expressions, set against a colorful, patterned background in a detailed, painterly style.

Bear Witness

2017 - 2021

Blue is a vertical painting with two views of the same Black man peacefully sleeping on a couch, his body gently curled in on himself, surrounded by an explosion of pattern and color that envelops the figures like a blanket.

Blue

2017 - 2020

Artworks shown are selected from works submitted by the artist in their grant or residency application. All works are copyright of the artist or artist’s estate.

About Bob Dilworth

Bob Dilworth smiles brightly in front of a red background. He is an older Black man with short cropped grey hair, medium skin tone, and wears a plaid shirt and rounded tortoiseshell glasses.
Photo by Kendall Moore

Bob Dilworth has exhibited nationally and internationally. He received the RI Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts in June of 2024. He was the recipient of the 2023-2025 General Operating Support for Artists Grant from the RI State Council for the Arts. He received an earlier fellowship in painting from RISCA in 2014. For many years he enjoyed attending artist residencies. Most came with fellowships. His work is included in corporate and private collections, including the Smithsonian Institution, the RISD Museum, the Newport Art Museum, the Fitchburg Art Museum, and other public institutions. Dilworth earned an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. He has taught art and design at colleges and universities throughout the country since 1977. He retired from the University of Rhode Island in 2020. He now lives in Providence, RI.

Program Participation

Joan Mitchell Fellowship, 2025

Website / Social Links

“ My paintings tell the stories of my community of family and friends. I want to describe the conditions of their lives, to explain my preoccupation with my Southern past as it comes to terms with my present life in the North, to find a ground on which to create an artistic vision that reconciles the two locations—and to think about the distance I have come from my early years to now.”