“After decades of producing abstract art exclusively, a series of trips to Italy, France and Spain inspired a change in the imagery in my work, from the purely abstract to the suggestion of figures in motion, to a series of interiors with abstract elements. I was moved by the art and artifacts of the last three millennia, and fully expect that these paintings mark a sea change in my body of work. As before, each new series begins intuitively, with a focus on exploring unfamiliar territory. Over time, the narrative becomes to develop and ultimately becomes clear.”
“My work is an attempt to communicate, rather than self-express. I am trying to access imagery and an essential aesthetic that I believe I share with all humans, perhaps at some pre-language level. My newest work is about the path without a clear destination, the journey one takes without an understanding of what is being sought, the dream whose details have receded, the memory that is fading around the edges, I would like the viewer to consider what may have just preceded, or what is to follow. The work is meant to convey that there is something of importance, some questions answered, but the answers are not easily discernable and may remain just out of reach.” – Bruce Dean
Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA
M.F.A. Painting and Drawing 1974
Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA
B.F.A. Painting and Drawing 1972
Bruce Dean builds his recent paintings on the foundations of 15th/16th Century Renaissance painting, and the effect of Chiaroscuro – the contrast between light and dark – decontextualized for the 21st century. Mining some of the same psychological vein as his art-hero, Edward Hopper (1882-1967), there’s something visually compelling about Dean’s compositions; each painting an enigma. The empty rooms, devoid of human presence, form a short, ambiguous story, or a chapter in a book yet to be finished. In most, any figurative presence is merely suggested through an unmade bed, open windows, or a book just put down and left open; in a few, an ephemeral figure or giant crane, punctuates the surrealism of the dreamscape. His use of light, often from an unseen source, infuses each painting with an ethereal atmosphere, further stoking the viewers imagination and leaving them to complete the narrative in their own minds…
