Delano Dunn was born in Los Angeles. Through painting, mixed media, and collage, Dunn explores questions of racial identity and perception through various contexts, ranging from the personal to the political, and drawing from his experience growing up in South Central L.A. He has had solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, among others. In 2017 he was nominated for the prestigious United States Artists Fellowship and received the Sustainable Arts Foundation Individual Artist's Grant. He was the 2016 recipient of the College Art Association’s Visual Arts Graduate Fellowship. Group exhibitions include The Wassaic Project, ArtSpace in New Haven, Spring/Break Art Show, Project for Empty Space, PULSE New York, The Delaware Contemporary, La Bodega Gallery, and more. Dunn has been featured in The New York Times, VICE Media’s The Creators Project, and Hyperallergic, amongst others. Other awards include the Delaware Contemporary’s Curator’s Choice Award, and SVA’s Edward Zutrau Memorial Award and Alumni Thesis Scholarship Award. Residencies include The Wassaic Summer Artist Residency, Project for Empty Space in Newark, NJ, and SPACE at Ryder Farm. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two children.
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All that Light: Works Detail
7.
The Grove Line
Delano Dunn
2022
Paper, wood paneling, copper, wallpaper, sequins, vinyl, shoe polish, resin on board
Logan Center Exhibitions
Curator’s Notes
Heavily influenced by notions of place, whether his native South Central Los Angeles or outer space, Delano Dunn investigates dynamic notions of racial identity and race relations and their depiction in popular culture and history. His "Grove Line" diptych looks at divided perspectives of urban migration and flight, concepts that have come to define many contemporary Chicago neighborhoods. Dunn has said that he uses bright, appealing color palettes in his paintings to draw viewers into the often sobering narratives contained in his paintings. How does his use of cartoon or comic imagery and glitter serve these two paintings and the stories they tell?
Additional viewing
Delano Dunn discusses the impact that coming-of-age in South Central Los Angeles had on his development as an artist on PBS NewsHour