Hannah Celeste Dean

"My recent work stems from the realization that information does not always equal knowledge. The sea of information available at the click of a button often pushes us further from truth and clarity, as quantity drowns our capacity to reason and consider the quality of the information. #ifitsontheinternetitmustbetrue.

Google Search sets the stage for my current work by allowing me to access images of almost any painting, anywhere, anytime from my home base in Lubbock, Texas. The seemingly arbitrary nature of how images are paired in internet searches inspires my work. For instance, the search “cezanne” brings forth many of his paintings, but also others’ tributary paintings, like someone else’s still-life of avocados. As I re-render the images I find on the screen, my mind envisions the parameters of an algorithm weighing dozens of variables, in comparison to the intense, singular focus of representational painting. "

work photographed: selections for TX * 17 (Texas Biennial), 2017