Biography

Dean Ebben was born in St. Louis Missouri.  His family relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota when he was four months old.  Ebben’s family lived six weeks at the Hopkins House Hotel where he took to sleeping in the hotel dresser drawer.  Ebben lived in the frozen upper midwest until he graduated from The Perpich Center for Arts Education in 1993.

Ebben is a working artist in New York City where he has lived for the last thirteen years.   Most recently Ebben was included in an exhibition, titled Altered Religious Texts at the Museum of Biblical Art, New York City. Ebben will be having an exhibition Trails and Parallels, May 2010 ” at Saint. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota.  He is also preparing for an exhibition In the House of the Mineral Spirits, at Susan Hensel Gallery in Minneapolis, Minnesota January of 2011.

Ebben has collaborated with Alison Knowles one of the original founders of Fluxus. In 2002 he completed a public sculpture commission titled Waiting, for the Church of the Holy Family, The United Nations Parish in Manhattan. In 2007 he was awarded a video residence at the Outpost in Brooklyn, New York where he worked with professional editors and sound technicians on his videos.

Ebben earned his BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Massachusetts, where he studied sculpture and papermaking, and earned his MFA with distinction from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York where he studied video and installation.

Artist Statement

 

My art poses many questions; the work defines these questions rather than answers them.  Small narratives are created which develop into a much larger dialogue with the viewer.  I explore ideas of boundaries and limitations on the fringes of the human condition and psyche. Albert Camus said “We have art in order not to die of life.” For me, this is the reason I make art.

I am using my own observations and experiences in a visual context, which is often subtle and requires the viewers to look carefully and ask themselves what they find significant.  In a world of mass culture, which inflicts sensory overload, people tend to become desensitized to visual culture.  I am asking the viewer to stop and look closely to find what is significant. Finding wisdom through observation and reflection, and take that away with them.

Copyright © 2000-2010 Dean Ebben. All rights reserved. 

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Photo Credit Tom Evans

Education

2005-2007 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY  Master of Fine Arts: with distinction

1993-1997 Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA Bachelor of Fine Arts

Selected One Person Exhibitions

2010 Trails and Parallels, Alice R. Rogers and Target Galleries, Saint John’s University, Collegeville, MN

2007 Twenty-Four-Hour Show, Drawings and Video, Micro Museum, Brooklyn, NY

2007 This One’s For You, New Video Works, Pratt Studios Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

1997 Megalopolis, Haywood Gallery, Worcester, MA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2009 Altered Religious Texts, Museum of Biblical Art, New York, NY

2008 MIXTAPE, Tom’s Museum, Pittsburgh, PA

2008 Carbunari International Experimental Film Festival, The Florean Contemporary Art Museum, Romania

2007 Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, NY

2006 NEUBEES, Rider Project D.U.M.B.O. Under the Bridge Festival, New York, NY

2006 Artist Foundation, Mills Gallery, Boston, MA

2006 Media Miniature, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, NY

2006 P=M/V, Steuben Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2006 Soo Visual Art Center, Minneapolis, MN

2005 Open Show, Perpich Center for Arts Education, Golden Valley, MN

2003 Drawing Conclusions: Work by Artist-Critics, New York Arts Magazine Gallery, New York, NY              

2002 Reactions, Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA              

2002 Witness and Response: September 11th” Acquisitions in the Library of Congress, Washington, DC     

2001 Reactions, Exit Art, New York, NY

2000 Fifteen Years Faculty and Friends, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN

2000 Foot in the Door, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN

2000 Cork Gallery, Lincoln Center, New York, NY

1999 Faculty Exhibition, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN 

1999 Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ

1997 Gallery 70, Distillery Gallery, Boston, MA

1997 Gallery 70, Artist Foundation Gallery, Boston, MA

1996 Gallery 70, Haywood Gallery, Worcester, MA

Commissions

2003- Building Blocks,  Perpich Center for Arts Education, Golden Valley, MN

2002 Waiting, Church of The Holy Family, United Nations Parish, New York, NY

Awards

2008 Cuts and Burns, Video Editing Residency, New York, NY

2004 Amigo Award, Betances Health Center, New York, NY

1996 Gallery 70, Artist Foundation, Boston, MA

Publications

2009 Trickhouse: back room, “Altered Religious Texts” by Noah Sterstrom August 26, 2009

2008 Spare Time For Children, “Chagall Celebrations” New York Times November 13, 2008; by Laurel Graeber

2004 Why I Continue to Make Art, by Dean Ebben PACE News From The Perpich Center for Arts Education, Vol. 2,2004

1999 Old Ways, New Views: Photographic Process on Hand Made Paper, Hand Papermaking, Inc., Washington DC, 1999.

Selected Reviews

2010 Minnesota Public Radio, State of the Arts “Similar journeys, on different paths”, By Marianne Combs May 19th, 2010

2009 Asphalt Eden, “Altered Religious Texts” August 3, 2009

2004 China Press, New York, NY November 20th 2004

2004 Grand Street News, “Betances Unveils Painting, Celebrates Jazz” New York, NY  November 1, 2004

2002 NBC KARE 11 interview for “Whatever” Minneapolis, MN

2002 Sun Post, New Hope, MN by Sue Webber September 7th

1999 Hand Papermaking Magazine, winter 1999, Volume 14, Number 2: “Reaching Back Moving Forward: Photos on Handmade Paper”, by John Risseeuw   

1997 Boston Herald, Boston, MA March 9th, 1997

Teaching Experience

2010 Valley Ridge Art Studio, Muscoda, WI Alternative Photo Process.

2008 Museum of Biblical Art New York, NY “Traveling With Chagall” Non- Adhesive Book Binding and Mono Printing

2008-10 Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN Alternative Photo Process and Alternative Printing Process.

2005-07 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY Graduate Assistant, Art History Dept. Assistant to Dr. Robert Morgan

1997- 2001 Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN Alternative Photo Process and Alternative Printing Process.

1998 Carriage House Paper, Brooklyn, NY