back   |   home   |   next
international drawing annual 9 exhibition-in-print
online resource





Brent Dedas
Nashville, Tennessee

Western Kentucky University, Assistant Professor of Art


studio@brentdedas.com

www.brentdedas.com



detail image

statement

My work often involves a connection between science and art. The artwork itself is usually the outcome of an ongoing experiment. Chemical reactions and corrosion are used as visual cues to speak about humanity's constant cycle of creation and destruction. Childhood memories of walking around on my father's construction sites have deeply affected my concepts of building and destroying.

Elements of chance are introduced to each "experiment" that occurs within my studio. As an artist, my formal concerns must adjust to each unpredictable mark left by an accident within the process of working. In this way my work is very process-orientated and involves a great deal of note taking as the artwork evolves.  

These images often begin with dividing up the picture plane by snapping down charcoal and other raw materials with chalk lines, like the ones used on construction sites. As lines amass, the surface undergoes various treatments of measured destruction. Pools of water and medium evaporate and sediment settles to cover previous layers. Grease pencils and graphite marks indicate the presence of a plan or system. Each new layer appears to have it's own logic while reaction and force destroy order. Corrosion appears in the form of iron Oxide whose reds and yellows leave a patina of change, as if a powerful natural correction fluid. No line or division seems capable of surviving.

The result becomes a map like landscape of history and reaction.  Chaos and chance become byproducts of leaving ones mark, building an image and dividing a space. As a society we draw lines that are both idealistic and physical to define things like geography, politics or religion. Yet all of these things we struggle to define are constantly being altered by time and changing intentions.

 

 

bio

born: 1977, Louisville, Kentucky

education

University of Cincinnati, MFA, 2003
University of Louisville, BFA, 2001

selected awards/honors

Second Place Prize, Professional Mixed Media, US Bank Exhibition, Bowling Green, Kentucky, 2014
Best of Show, Working with Paper National Juried Exhibition, Tubac Center of the Arts, Arizona, New Mexico, 2011
Award for Excellence, All Kentucky Juried Exhibition, Capital Arts Alliance, Bowling Green, Kentucky, 2011
Second Place Prize, TAA Juried Exhibition, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, 2010

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Solo Exhibition, Galerie ERA, Prague, Czech Republic
Brent Dedas and Jim Doiron, Billy Hertz Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky, 2012
The Architecture of Destruction Solo Exhibition, Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi, 2010
Our Chemistry: Sex, War and the Landscape Solo Exhibition, Water Tower Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky, 2007

selected group shows

Art Prague International Art Fair, Kafka's House, Prague, Czech Republic, 2014
Process as Content, Gallery Project, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2013
State of Drawing, Anne Wright Wilson Gallery, Georgetown College, Kentucky, 2011
Working with Paper National Juried Exhibition, Tubac Center of the Arts, Arizona, New Mexico, 2011

Copyright © Manifest Press