Sara Meltzer Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Stephen Dean. This is Dean's first exhibition at the gallery and the New York debut of two films: Grand Prix (2006) and Vortex (Blue Devil) (2007); both exploring "painting" as an active agent of experience. Also on view will be new glass sculptures that insert color into established systems of organization.

Stephen Dean's films extract the physicality of color from the repetitive structure of cultural rituals. Dean forgoes the linear nature of a narrative and focuses on the excess of color and the materiality of paint as a cultural tool. Grand Prix, which debuted at the 2006 Site Sante Fe Biennial, is a celebration of destruction that captures the motion, sound and force of a demolition derby, via painted vehicles and hubcaps. If Grand Prix is a ritualistic incarnation of color, Vortex (Blue Devil) is an industrial mantra that deconstructs and magnifies the source of paint. Shot entirely in a paint factory, Vortex (Blue Devil) follows the swirling of pigment, resin and solvents within industrial turbines, offering a glimpse of the toxic process entailed in creating color.

Dean's sculptures transform the common experience of everyday objects into unsettling enigmas. For this exhibition Dean has created a cluster of postcard racks, as seen in the proximity of tourist attractions. Inserting color into a systematic display, transforms the ritual of sending a "souvenir" into a kaleidoscopic explosion. Dichroic glass is chemically treated to be both reflective and penetrable to light, displaying all tonal ranges of a color and its complimentary. These sculptures become disembodied objects that fill their surrounding space with shattered projections of color.

Stephen Dean lives and works in New York. His work has been exhibited in venues internationally including: SFMoMA, San Francisco, CA; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle WA; Site Santa Fe 2006, Santa Fe, NM; Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL; 51st Venice Biennial,2005, Venice, IT; Fondazione Pitti, Stazione Leopole, Florence, IT; Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY and many others. His work is part of numerous public and private collections including: Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; La Caixa, Barcelona, Spain; Jumex Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico; Altadis, Paris, France; Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and many others.

Related Events:
Stephen Dean's, His Grandfather's and His Aunt's Films
Outdoor projection, Wednesday October 3rd