Bio & Statement

Artist Bio

Baltimore based artist Angela Deane, while best known for her small paintings on photographs, is currently pursuing an ever-growing body of larger works on canvas. In many of her creations there is a playfulness to be found; one tied to nostalgia, the sweet married to the bittersweet, but also emerging is a strong buoyancy of spirit, a kind of spiritual mapping, both in process and evocation of the completed piece.

She has shown both domestically and internationally, with highlights including a group show Daegu Museum in South Korea, and a commission by Gucci to create a mural in Milan, Italy.



Artist Statement

Much of my work has been tied to memory. How do we hold it? Can we define what it is now that it once was. Ever present is a playfulness intertwined with nostalgia, the sweet married to the bittersweet. Simple yet evocative my series of painting on found materials taught me a lot about visual restraint, about the power of less.

In my Flora series, which, at its simplest, are flowers with faces, I continue this playful exploration paired with an undertone of urgency - of making things right, or at least better. Mother Nature gets a voice, offers a side-eye, a snarl, even a wink or two.

And then there is my primary focus of more abstract pieces. Recently I’ve begun to par down the shape of animals. Almost animals as architecture, a solemn but bright monument outlasting a lifespan. I’m drawn to bold, bright colors. The vibrancy they hold make me feel connected to the beating heart, to the now. A visual shot of serotonin.

In others, two planes exist. First, I lay down the ground; a map, a flag, a landscape. Next tens to hundreds to thousands of dots are placed, this action feels meditative, transports me always. They read almost like an atmosphere above. Visually they become a flock, a swarm, a constellation, some kind of otherworldly language. Always in metallics so that this “above” is more light than color, reflection rather than deposit. They are, as I paint, my hope, my memory, my impulse, my everything, my nothing…they are time itself. These paintings are a are a kind of spiritual mapping, both in process and evocation of result.



Ghost Photographs Statement

Found photographs.
Not necessarily lost but able to be found.
A history held within a snapshot,

Unknown.

I put paint to paper and in doing so turn the specific
into the abstract.
Face becomes ghost.
Person becomes vessel.
And vessel is open for possession.

(You may haunt these ghosts.)

Through this manipulation of the material,
the ghosts become us and we become the ghosts.

We become the ghosts of our everyday.