Dean Sameshima’s art brings together views of men both edgy and tender, juxtaposing them in ways that dually suggest the complexity of a secret life, and the complexity of simply being human. Based out of Berlin and Los Angeles, Dean completed his MFA at the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, and since then has exhibited in both group and solo shows internationally. Realizing that LA’s sex club culture was not being documented, Sameshima set about recording some of his experience via photo history. In this respect, his body of work might be viewed as confessional, or as pieces of the artist offered up for interpretation. But the work is also a record of what Dean perceives as a dwindling culture; the gay underground which has, in many cases, migrated online. His current show at Peres Projects gallery in Berlin features a variety of screen prints. Working from pre-existing imagery, over the years Dean has amassed a vast patchwork archive of vintage clippings and photographs from old magazines, eBay and estates, through which he can sift to select visual expressions of his ideas. One of the most arresting artworks in the exhibition, Though the Story is Not Without Darkness, was sourced from a 1970’s Japanese softcore porn publication. The image, of a nude frozen mid-leap toward a flowering cherry blossom, is one example of Dean’s drawing out a breathtaking moment from a provenance that might be seen as marginalized or taboo. Pleasure Doesn’t Really Make You Happy is composed of silkscreen ink, the artist’s piss, and anonymous cum on canvas, and is serenely beautiful to look at. There’s an implication in many pieces that everything has two sides – on the flip side of the façade and fear of judgment is the urge to create. Dean also keeps an excellent blog, Cruise or Be Cruised, to share art and ideas. Interview and more images after the jump. – Text by Shirin Borthwick
Though the Story is not Without Darkness, 2011
Photograph – C-print
A Kind of Obscene Diary, 2011
Photographs – C-prints
This Love of Duplicity, 2011
Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas
Pleasure Doesn’t Really Make You Happy, 2011
Silkscreen ink, artist’s piss and anonymous cum on canvas
A Complicated Man of Many Identities, 2011
Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas
All images courtesy of Peres Projects, Berlin.
