Joshua Dean

Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, USA

Artist statement

We upload 4000 pictures to the Internet per second, amassing networks of information that define billions of timelines. With the luxury obtained from smartphones and cameras, we have novel understanding of the repercussions, or more precisely, we have less awareness and more expectation. Reliance on this habit may lead to familiarity of modernity, or a psychological blind spot. However, in order to understand the relevance of any dependency, we need something to compare it to. But what is the idea or subject we use to compare our present situation? It is the evolution of photography that I wish to explore through my painting. Interweaving aspects of the historical and digital, highlighting our interaction with it, I try to better understand its relevance and consequence today. My process is specific: I use only four colors: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The painting develops in the same manner as a print: layering the colors in an additive process, allowing colors to mix on the surface of the canvas. Referencing nostalgic aspects from the past while pointing to current trends, I create particular frequencies within the work. I intend that this oscillation be a liberation from ideological naivety or cynicism. My themes reside in this flux in order to understand how a photo will function as cultural memory.

Artwork