Anna Grant Dean
Charlotte, North Carolina
Interdisciplinary Artist - Searching through the noise for a signal
MessageAnna G. Dean is an interdisciplinary artist working in large-scale sculpture, installation, video, and mixed media. She worked with the Art21 Educators program in NYC, and helped create the SmartArts program in Greenville SC. She went on to complete her MFA at Winthrop University, where she currently coordinates the CreatorSpace technology lab.
Anna’s work has been exhibited at Casa-Museu Abel Salazar in Porto, Portugal, the Mint Museum, the McColl Center, the Brooklyn Collective, Redux Gallery, and Miami Art Week. Anna has public art installations in various locations throughout the Southeast, including Atrium Health, Levine Children’s Hospital, Capital One Arts, and works in progress with the Charlotte Area Transit System and Eastland Park in Charlotte, NC.
She has been an artist-in-residence at the McColl Center, Penland School of Craft, and was awarded a project space at Goodyear Arts. Anna was awarded the 2025 Emerging Artist for Coda Worx at the CODAsummit in Washington DC. She was awarded the 2024 Individual Artist Fellowship through the South Carolina Arts Commission. Anna’s studio is located at Loso Studios in Charlotte NC.
Statement
My work explores ideas about chaos and order through an iterative investigation into materials and processes. My studio practice oscillates between the digital and the analog. An intuitive hand drawn mark may become a digital scan, which might then become a steel sculpture, which may then become a shadow within a video projection, and so forth and so on. The process of pushing an idea through many different materials and processes leads to a perpetual series of investigations, and each iteration becomes a new path of inquiry. I am most driven by my relentless sense of curiosity and wonder.
My life has been shaped by many events that were out of my control - beginning with the death of my Mother when I was a child. This fostered a deep sense of fascination with chaos and order, and begs the question - does the universe follow a pattern or does it unfold in a series of random events? To consider these ideas, I investigate materials and processes that allow for a high level of control (often technological processes such as laser cutting or CNC plotting), and I combine those with media and techniques that cannot be controlled (such as dripping ink, wafting smoke, or drifting clouds). The tension between my own desire to predict every aspect of the work - combined with the excitement that comes from the potential for unexpected things to happen - places me directly at the intersection of chaos and order within my own artistic journey