Joel Dean

b. 1986, Atlanta, GA

Lives and works in New York

Joel Dean’s practice spans painting, sculpture, and installation, examining across these formats the stability of cultural signs and symbols. In large scale oil on canvas, Dean uses alphabetical characters as a point of departure for intricate, fantastical panoramas. Beginning with initials as a familiar strategy of signification, Dean densely populates these archetypal origins with personal symbology and serpentine narratives, eluding a unilateral reading. In Dean’s sculpture and installations, the denotations of visual icons are similarly complicated and challenged to engender more complex interpretation: “Big Apples'' are choked with overgrowth; city skylines comprise stacks of currency; porcelain angels are perched atop glowing fluorescent lighting. In undermining the simplicity of the symbols he employs, Dean ultimately expands their meaning.

EDUCATION

2009	Bachelor of Fine Arts, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024	Notes on the Fall of Emphasis, Derosia, New York, NY
2022	The Dreamtime Particle Pretend, Derosia, New York, NY
2021	Universe Picture Collapse, Bel Ami, Los Angeles, CA
2019	Evolve Right Now, Prairie, Chicago, IL Perfectamundo, Cordova, Barcelona
2018	The Fugitive, the Repeat Offender, and the Running Joke, Interstate Projects, Brooklyn, NY
2017	Excerpts from a line of questioning surrounding a missing circle, The New York Headache Society, Redhook, NY
2016	Powers of 7-8-9, Species, Atlanta, GA
	First Person Problems, International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York, NY
2015	Empty Stomach Challenge, Princess, New York, NY
2013	The Mutant and the Melody, Jancar Jones Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023	Off Script, Simone Subal Gallery, New York, NY
2021	Entrainment, Someday, New York, NY
	Almost Samhain, Annex de Odelon, New York, NY
2020	No Place, P.P.O.W., New York, NY
	An Artist Age Mess, Bodega (Derosia), New York, NY
	The 4 Gate Connection, Tatjana Pieters, Ghent, Belgium
2019	Bubble, Gern en Regalia, New York, NY
	Hong Kong, MX Gallery, New York, NY
2018	The Belly & the Members, MX Gallery, New York, NY
2017	40 Pest Street, Alyssa Davis Gallery, New York, NY
	The Mere Future, curated by Tim Gentles, American Medium, Brooklyn, NY
2016	Hard to Be a God, Weekends, London, United Kingdom
	The Garden, Room 10 27 E, Paris, France
	Welcome to Earth, the story so far..., High Tide, Philadelphia, PA
2015	Towards the Theory of a Unified Hole, Bodega (Derosia), New York, NY
	100º City, City Limits, Oakland, CA
	Sixth Sense, Mini Bar Artists Space, Stockholm, Sweden
2014	Bay Area Now 7, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
	Four Drawings of a Farmer, Bureau, New York, NY
	Another Name For Liar, Lodos Contemporåneo, Mexico City, Mexico
2013	The Fruit that Ate Itself, Et Al, San Francisco, CA
	Great Skin, Bodega, Philadelphia, PA

SELECTED PRESS

Anachronism and Apocalypse: Notes on the Contemporary Medieval, Isabella Miller, Carla, February 2023, Print

No Place, Johanna Fateman, The New Yorker, August 2020, Print

I Me Mind, Michael Robbins, Bookforum, Dec/Jan 2020, Print

Up Close 2016: Around Atlanta, Victoria Camblin, Art in America, Jan 5, 2017

A Glorious Exploration of Binaries, Jerry Cullum, Arts Atl, Dec 21, 2016

100º City, Jackie Im, Art Practical, San Francisco, May 5, 2015

100º City, Sarah Burke, East Bay Express, April 24, 2015

Four Drawings of a Farmer at Bureau, Alexandra Pechman, Art News, New York, October, 1 2014.

The Mutant and the Melody, Bianca Guillen, San Francisco Arts Quarterly, September 25, 2013

PUBLICATIONS

2021	Universe Picture Collapse, published by Bel Ami, LA

AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS & RESIDENCIES

2019	Residency, Triangle Association, Brooklyn, US
2017	Summer Forum, Kaneohe, Hawaii, US
2013	Alternative Exposure Grant, Southern Exposure / The Andy Warhol Foundation
2009	Fellowship, Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency
2008	Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship, Yale University

Download CV