Artist talk: Danielle Dean

May 11, 2023

Interdisciplinary artist Danielle Dean investigates the production of desire by mining media archives to explore the geopolitical and material processes that colonize the mind and body. Born to a Nigerian father and an English mother, Dean draws from her multinational background alongside the aesthetics and history of advertising to create dynamic works which have been featured in Performa 21, The Tate Britain, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and most recently the 2022 Whitney Biennial. Dean uses watercolor, animation, installation, and performance to put a sharp focus on the values socially engendered in us all through technology, architecture, marketing, and media. With a playful hand and cutting wit, Dean exposes these forces as tools of subjection, oppression, and resistance.