Statement: Dan Dempster, CA
Dan Dempster: Deep Seeing
The power and beauty of the coastal environment is undeniable. I am particularly struck by the fractal detail of movement of water and light in the shallows, weathered materials and the forces that created them. Through drawing, painting and sculpture, it has been my practice to point out the spectacular in the mundane. Pointing out the spectacular in the mundane, I teach how to see.
When we look deep into detail, subject and scale become irrelevant. Contemplating this paradox creates a crack in our façade of certainty about identity and meaning. Opened, it is possible to catch a glimpse of things as they are, rather than what we think. We are compelled to pay attention, to unknot our minds and wake up.
Seeing past concept and category, the mind opens to clarity and vastness; the boundaries between artist, subject, artwork and viewer dissolve. Freed from self-absorption, whatever is created in this selflessness is imbued with it. Through such authenticity, the curious and receptive may share that state.
In this age of information overload, I curate that rarest and most elusive commodity: peace of mind. It is this intention, authenticity and capability which viewers find compelling and discerning collectors seek.
- Dan Dempster, CA
Biography: Dan Dempster, CA
Dan Dempster, CA
Dan Dempster (b. 1963, Montreal) is a professional Copley Artist member of the Copley Society of Art, Boston (1879). "With the acceptance of his oil painting to the 2018 Copley Society's Winter Members Show: In the Style Of, juried by Tom Kellaway, Editor of American Art Review, Daniel became a Copley Artist. Achieving this status is a mark of excellent technique, hard work ethic, and superb artistry." *
Having grown up in Bermuda, in, on and under the ocean, and now living on the Pacific Coast, all Dan Dempster's explorations in drawing, painting and sculpture are based on deep familiarity with the coastal environment. His particular interest is studying the movement of refracted light in the shallows, weathering and the close observation of fractal detail.
The meditative quality of his work is no accident. Dan's art and philosophy is informed by his long practice of meditation. He is an authorized Dharma teacher and a certified meditation instructor, for over twelve years a student of Khenpo Migmar Tseten, Buddhist Chaplain at Harvard University.
He is a graduate of the University of Waterloo and Sheridan College. He has been a professional artist for thirty years, showing in New York and abroad, and has taught figure drawing for many of them. He now lives and works in Los Angeles, living in Palos Verdes with his wife and two sons.
His weathered sculpture was shown in New York by Fulcrum Gallery SoHo from 1994-2004. His work has been selected for exhibition in eight Bermuda National Gallery Biennials, the Bienniale Museo de Arte Moderno, St. Domingo, ten juried exhibitions at the Copley Society of Art, the Bermuda Biological Station for Research, won Best Painting at the New Hampshire Institute of Art Biennial and Best in Show at the Bermuda Society of Arts, and is in the collections of the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art, HSBC Bank of Bermuda, Swiss Re and other private collections.
His philanthropic activity includes work selected for the British Red Cross Society "Art for Humanity" auction in London and the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy, among others.
*Copley Society of Art press release.
Education
1989 DCA, (magna cum laude) Sheridan College, Ontario
1988 BA, University of Waterloo, Ontario
Professional Memberships
Copley Society of Art, Boston: Copley Artist.
Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art: Fellow; Artist in Residence
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2015 Mullions & Moonlight, Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art
2008 Tidepools: Fractal Shallows, M2L, Boston, Massachusetts
2005 Sky, Sand & Sea, Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art
1998 Waterworks, District of Columbia Arts Center, Washington, D.C.
1998 Ithuriel, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
1997 Bermuda Shallows: Drawings, Nicholas Lusher Fine Art, Bermuda
1997 Timewrack and Tide, Fulcrum Gallery SoHo, New York
1997 Waterworks, Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Newport News, Virginia
1996 Ithuriel, Bermuda Society of Arts, Hamilton, Bermuda
1996 Iron Moss, Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art
1996 The Water Planet, Fulcrum Gallery SoHo, New York
Selected Group & Juried Exhibitions
2020 Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking? Invitational, Peninsula Friends of the Library, CA
2020 Regional Showcase, National Watercolor Society, San Pedro, California
2019 Fantastic Voyage, Art Directors Guild Gallery 800, NoHo Arts District, California
2019 Summer, Palos Verdes Art Center, California
2019 Art Unites 12, Art Directors Guild Gallery 800, NoHo Arts District, California
2019-08 Copley Society of Art, Boston, Massachusetts
2018 Not always So, The Loft, San Pedro, California
2017 Winter, Palos Verdes Art Center, California
2016, 06, 04, 02, 00, 98, 96, 94 Bermuda National Gallery Biennial
2016 Summer, Palos Verdes Art Center, California
2015 St. George's, Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art
2015 South Bay Focus, Torrance Art Museum, California
2009 Get the Lead Out 2, Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art
2009 Biennial 2009, New Hampshire Institute of Art, Manchester, NH
2005 Art for Humanity, Red Cross Art Auction, London, England
2004-1994 Fulcrum Gallery SoHo, New York, NY
2003 Art: New Genre, Bermuda National Gallery, Hamilton, Bermuda
2001 Julie Coash & Dan Dempster, Burnaby Gallery, Hamilton, Bermuda
1998 Sculpture: 3D, Charles Sumner Museum, Washington, D.C.
1996 3rd Bienniale, Museo de Arte Moderno, St. Domingo
1994 Dempster, Fugate-Wilcox & Kobayashi, Fulcrum Gallery SoHo, New York, NY
Publications/Press
The Bermuda National Gallery Biennial
Catalogues. Bermuda National Gallery, Hamilton, Bermuda.
1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2016
Dan Dempster "Timewrack & Tide" new works of copper, steel and zinc
Fulcrum Gallery SoHo, 480 Broome Street, Broome & Wooster, New York, NY 10013.
Dan Dempster: "Waterworks"
ISBN 1-886845-03-4. Softcover, 20 pages, 12 colour plates, essay by Peter Barton. Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Affiliate of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, P.O. Box 6438, Newport News, VA 23606.
3rd Bienniale of Painting of the Carribean and Central America
Catalogue. Museo de Arte Moderno, Santo Domingo. Catalogue.
New York Contemporary Art Galleries
Renee Phillips, Manhattan Arts, New York, NY.
Guide to Galleries, Museums and Artists
Art in America.
Art & Meditation
The meditative quality of his work is no accident. Dan's art and philosophy is informed by his long practice of meditation. He is an authorized Dharma teacher and a certified meditation instructor, for over twelve years a student of Khenpo Migmar Tseten, Buddhist Chaplain at Harvard University.
Above: Tiddlywinks, 36x60 oil on canvas
Portuguese Bend Beach Club
Rancho Palos Verdes, California