Glenn Dean and the Spiritualized Landscape
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Jeffrey Carlson Reporting
Contributing Editor, Fine Art Today
Whether peaceful scenes of arid deserts or energetic compositions with waves crashing on the coastline, Glenn Dean’s paintings of the American West capture the beauty and meaning in simplicity.
The new Maxwell Alexander Gallery in Culver City, California, hosts a solo exhibition of landscapes by native Californian Glenn Dean. The exhibition, titled Glenn Dean: Landscapes of the American West, features 34 small- to medium-scale oil paintings and three intimate charcoal drawings. The artworks are displayed in unique wooden plank frames. Constructed by a Los Angeles furniture manufacturer, the frames serve to honor the arts and crafts movement of the early 1900s.
By their style and subject, Glenn Dean’s landscapes capture the aesthetic value and deep significance of that which is pure, simple, and essential. With his landscapes Dean aims to capture the spirituality with which nature is imbued. In this aspect Dean’s work recalls that of another American landscape artist, the great colorist George Inness. Dean writes of the natural landscape as a divine blessing, and he understands his role as a painter as memorializing that gift and thus giving honor back to the Creator.
Dean’s spiritual landscapes exude calm and sincerity. Brushstrokes are carefully placed and easily visible. Patches of harmonious color comprise these paintings: blues and grays for the skies and sea, reds and greens across the landscape. In Dean’s paintings one finds a profound appreciation for the wonders of nature and a refreshing openness in artistic expression.
Glenn Dean (b. 1976) credits the Early California and Western landscape painters of the early 1900s with helping him to find his own art form, in which he aims to create similarly interesting compositions with a sensitivity to the color of light. Dean’s art has been featured in numerous national magazines, including Western Art and Architecture, Southwest Art, Art of the West, and American Artist. He was the recipient of the first ever Emerging Artist Award presented by Art and Antiquesmagazine, and he was the recipient of the Grand Prize and Artists’ Choice awards at the inaugural Tucson/Sonoran Desert Museum Plein Air Invitational.
Glenn Dean: Landscapes of the American West debuts April 6, with an opening night reception from 7-10 p.m. The exhibition will run through May 4.
For more information, visit www.maxwellalexandergallery.com or e-mail inquiries to info@maxwellalexandergallery.com.