Dean Kessmann - Utilitarian Abstraction

William Shearburn Gallery is pleased to present Dean Kessmann: Utilitarian Abstraction, from

June 22nd to June 27th, 2018 with an opening reception on Friday, June 22nd from 5 to 7 pm. The

exhibition explores the materiality of mass-produced products and consumer culture through representation

and re-contextualization of usually overlooked utilitarian printing marks on package

design. Through a process of high-resolution scanning and digitizing that retains imperfections

such as glue, tears, and other blemishes of packaging, Kessmann points viewers to reflect on the

messy materiality of consumer products in a digital age. Kessmann simultaneously asks us to

consider the relationship between consumer driven popular culture and abstraction in high art

by enlarging, reprinting, and presenting these images within an art context.

Dean Kessmann lives and works in Washington DC. He has had one-person exhibitions at

numerous institutions across the country including Furthermore, Washington, DC, Orlando

Museum of Art, Orlando, FL, Conner Contemporary Art, Washington, DC, Humanity Center

Galleries, California State University, Chico, CA, White Flag Projects, St. Louis, MO, Regina

Gouger Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, School 33 Art Center,

Baltimore, MD, and the Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO.

Kessmann has also received numerous Artist Fellowship Grant Awards from the DC

Commission on the Arts and Humanities, as well as a Franz and Virginia Bader Fund

Grant. He has been a semi-finalist for the Sondheim Prize and has won awards from The

Trawick Prize. In 2009 he was an artist-in-residence at Light Work in Syracuse,

NY. Additionally, many important institutions have collected his work, such as the Hirshhorn

Museum and Sculpture Garden, Baltimore Museum of Art, Walker Art Center, The Phillips

Collection, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Bowdoin College Museum of Art,

Orlando Museum of Art, Light Work, and Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, among

others.

Kessmann is an Associate Professor of Photography at The George Washington University,

where he teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

For further information, please contact Katherine Rodway Vega,

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 314.367.8020 or visit www.shearburngallery.com