In my recent paintings, I mine the visual markers of image reproduction to form invented depictions of nature and commerce, two opposing poles of contemporary experience. I layer textures and patterns from daily life, linking our visual experience of the world to ingrained systems of image mediation and multiplication. The work draws from disparate pictorial traditions including botanical and children’s book illustrations, comics, American quilt traditions, early modern textile design, and ukiyo-e woodblock prints, with a special focus on the language of (re)production inherent to each. I reposition elements from these functional and decorative traditions to form organic, life-size expressive spaces. In this body of work, I ask: How does the visual language of mass production inform an experience of our everyday surroundings, even in its purest natural state? The works included in my application were made during the 2020 Covid shutdown. These paintings are meditations on existence and extinction, the effects of relentless consumption on the planet, and the disjointed experience of engaging with social, environmental, and biological upheaval from the seclusion of my home-garden refuge.
Brian Michael Dunn creates paintings and sculptures that mine the visual language of mass reproduction. Born in Milwaukee, WI, Dunn received a Bachelor of Fine Art in Painting from Boston University and a Masters of Fine Art from Cornell University. Dunn is an alumni of the Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship and was awarded a DC art Bank Grant in 2020 and a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Grant in 2019. Dunn has attended the Millay Residency in Austerlitz, NY, the Byrdcliffe Residency in Woodstock, NY and the Yale Summer Painting Program in Norfolk, CT. Recent commissions include Google Headquarters in Arlington, VA and Costa Palmas Casitas, Cabo, MX. Dunn has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the region, most recently at But, Also, Washington DC, Hamiltonian Gallery, Washington DC, Mono Practice and the Reinstitute, Baltimore and Tiger Strikes Asteroid, New York.