Dean Ebben is an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans sculpture, works on paper, video, sound, performance, fibers, and book arts. As a gay artist he explores identity, the evolving nature of the physical/mental self, and the nuances of the human condition, often sighting literature as a source of inspiration. He uses common materials that emphasize fragility, impermanence and burden. His fabric works, informed by quilting traditions, incorporate stitching, mending, and reconstructing, acts of physical and emotional rebuilding.
Raised in Minnesota, his childhood artistic journey was shaped by cultural institutions like the Walker Art Center, where Marcel Broodthaers retrospective in 1987 profoundly influenced his conceptual approach. He earned a BFA in sculpture and papermaking from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and an MFA with distinction in video and installation from Pratt Institute. He lives In New York City and the Berkshires.
His work has been exhibited at institutions including Soo Visual Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN, Museum of Biblical Art, NYC, Alice R. Rogers and Target Galleries, Saint John’s University, Collegeville, MN, SUNY Cortland, Cortland, NY, A Gathering of the Tribes, NYC, The Center for Book Arts, NYC, Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA, NYCAMS, NYC, Johnson & Johnson World Headquarters in New Brunswick, NJ Carbunari International Experimental Film Festival, The Florean Contemporary Art Museum, Romania
His work is included in numerous public and private collections.
