This event was recorded on February 17, 2023 at the Aspen Art Museum, in partnership with Aspen Public Radio.
A talk by New York–based artist, filmmaker, and writer Aria Dean, held on the occasion of John Chamberlain: THE TIGHTER THEY’RE WOUND, THE HARDER THEY UNRAVEL.
Dean has emerged as a critical voice of her generation, investigating narratives around identity, objecthood, and power in her multifaceted practice. The artist is known for subjecting sculptural materials to simulated force through digital modeling software, and, in this presentation, Dean will examine her body of “collision” works against the backdrop of John Chamberlain’s physical manipulations of metal and foam. Recent exhibitions include the 2022 Whitney Biennial and a recently opened 2024 solo exhibition at the ICA London.
ARTIST BIO
Aria Dean (b. 1993) lives and works in New York. A solo exhibition of her latest moving-image work, Abattoir, U.S.A.!, is currently on view at the Power Plant in Toronto, through March 2024. Aria Dean: Abattoir, a solo exhibition at ICA London, will open in February 2024. Her selected writings were compiled in Bad Infinity, published by Sternberg Press in 2023. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions and performances include the Renaissance Society, Chicago (2023); Greene Naftali, New York (2023, 2021); CAPC, Bordeaux (2023); REDCAT, Los Angeles (2021); Artists Space, New York (2020); Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva (2019); and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York (2018). Significant group shows include the Whitney Biennial: Quiet as It’s Kept (2022); the Hammer Museum’s biennial Made in L.A. 2020: a version(2021); the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (2019); The MAC, Belfast, Northern Ireland (2019); Tai Kwun, Hong Kong (2019); Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2018); Swiss Institute, New York (2018); and the de Young Museum, San Francisco (2017), among others.
Her writing has appeared in publications including Artforum, Art in America, e-flux, The New Inquiry, X-TRA Contemporary Art Quarterly, Spike Quarterly, Kaleidoscope Magazine, Texte zur Kunst, CURA Magazine, and November. Dean’s work is in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art, Tilburg, Netherlands; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College; Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.