Dylan Cram

b 1977 Victoria, Canada. Lives and works in Berlin and Weimar, Germany.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My artistic practice is an ongoing exploration into issues of morality, spirituality and violence. Inspiration for this subject matter comes from personal experience dealing with concurrent expressions of both violence and beauty. My work aims to create similar emotional impact by synthesizing socially and politically challenging material into something outside the ordinary.

Using a process that combines techniques of painting, photography and 3D software I transform difficult subject matter through a selection of devices adopted from the history of visual expression. Modes of representation such as those used in the psychology of media and marketing, classical painting, and the entertainment industry are dispersed in order to defer immediate comprehension and extend the possibilities of interpretation.

This strategy is intended as a critical platform from which to caricature a cultural obsession with violent entertainment, the mediated delivery of emotional impact, and voyeuristic gratification. My work symbolizes a futile attempt to redeem violent imagery; it is an equally sincere attempt as it is a sarcastic criticism. My intention is to both seduce and repel, as well as to complicate the act of looking. The simultaneous representation of violence and beauty is intended to attract the viewer’s gaze and then cause that attraction to become problematic.

 

Vita

  • Education 
  • 2000 Diploma - Victoria College of Art, Painting and Drawing - Victoria - CA
  • 2008 Bachelor of Fine Art with Great Distinction - Major in Photography - Concordia University - Montreal - CA
  • 2011 Private Mentorship: Leiko Ikemura - Berlin - DE
  • 2018 Masters of Fine Arts with Great Distinction - Bauhaus University - Weimar - DE  
  • Exhibitions (Selected)
  • 42 Contemporary Artists by Enter Art Foundation – Gerichtshofe – Berlin – DE
  • 2018 Medienkunst Preis - Galerie Eigenheim - Weimar - DE
  • 2016 Spectra - HB55 Kunstfabrick - Berlin - DE     
  • 2015 Underdog - Vesselroom - Berlin - DE 
  • 2014 Felt and Fa(c)t - Ormston House - Limerick - IE
  • 2010 6 x 6 - Untitled BCN - Barcelona - ES
  • 2009 Sidebeside - Gallery T - Denver - USA
  • 2008 Imprints/Empreintes - Galerie Art Mur - Montreal - Canada
  • 2007 dpi - The Petting Zoo - Albuquerque - USA
  • 2006 L'oeil préhenseur - Galerie Art Mur - Montreal - CA
  • 2006 Depiction - Beaver Hall Gallery - Toronto - CA
  • 2006 The Only Way Out is In - Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery - Montreal - CA
  • Awards 
  • 2009 Gabor Szilasi Prize in Studio Arts
  • 2007 Heather and Erin Walker Humanitarian Award
  • 2007 Campaign for the New Millennium Student Contribution Scholarship
  • 2006 Faculty of Fine Arts Development Fund Award
  • 2003 Photo 200 Portfolio Award - Concordia University - Montreal - CA
  • Residencies 
  • 2019 Artist in Residence - Joya: arte + ecologia - Vélez Rubio - ES
  • 2001 Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts Residency - Victoria - CA

To: Dylan Cram

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Works by Dylan Cram