Work and Projects

Brandon Dean

My work uses whiteness itself as an “exotic” subject, condensing painting history, US History, and tropes of media culture to expose the inherent strangeness of desire and the canonical drive. The work utilizes the tools of academic painting to reflect a vision of identity that is bound more to an aggrandizing mythos than life. In paint and in print, I am exploring the complicated and often problematic ways in which in art and media have shaped my perception of self.

Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Brandon Dean lives and works in Cleveland, OH. He received a BFA from Auburn University in 2008, and received a MFA in Painting from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. Brandon Dean has been featured in many regional and national exhibitions including a solo exhibition at the Alabama Contemporary Art Center. Other exhibitions include Curator Spotlight, at the Arlington Arts Center; Swing State: An exhibition of Topography and Body at Little Berlin Gallery in Philadelphia; The Few, The Brave at Goldilocks Gallery in Philadelphia; Rites of Passage at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati; National Wet Paint Exhibition in Chicago, and at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art in Auburn, AL.