Dean Kessmann
Size: 24x36 inches
Edition Size: 10
Medium: Archival Pigment Print
Paper Type: Hahnemuhle Photo Rag
$50
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About the Poster:
The landscape has been a recurring subject in my work since I began working as an artist. Recently, I found myself reminiscing about how much I miss the freedom that I felt when I was a much younger artist: the creative freedom that came from taking one’s time to wander, or to meander, with the sole purpose of being open to any and all situations that one might inadvertently happen upon. Therefore, after spending many years trying various ways of working and exploring many different types of content, I decided circle back to the approach and subject matter that made me want to make photographs in the first place. This work is an exploration of the vast space that exists between photographs that function as objective records and those that dissolve into abstraction. As I look back over my past projects, I’ve come to recognize that each new project builds upon and expands my larger body of work, while at the same time folding into it. My ongoing goal as an artist is to create fresh iterations that fuse the lessons learned with happenstance that is part and parcel of the creative process. The intuitive impulse in my practice is balanced with a more critical and reasoned approach. If one looks closely at the subtle twists and turns that have led me from one project to the next, it should be apparent that my meandering is with purpose.
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About the Artist:
Dean Kessmann’s work has been collected by many institutions, such as the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Baltimore Museum of Art, Walker Art Center, The Phillips Collection, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, and the Orlando Museum of Art. Kessmann has had exhibitions at The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME, American University Museum, Washington, DC, The Photographic Resource Center, Boston, MA, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA, Cerasoli Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Project Row Houses, Houston, TX, and William Shearburn Gallery, St. Louis, MO. These exhibitions have been reviewed in a variety of publications, including Art Papers, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and ARTFORUM magazine. Finally, Kessmann is Program Head of Studio Arts and Professor of Photography at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at the George Washington University.
