Dean Dempsey
Bosi Contemporary
48 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002
October 10 – November 7
BOSI Contemporary presents Dean Dempsey’s first solo show in New York City. Featuring a new body of work created predominantly while at a residency in Munich, Dempsey expands his oeuvre to incorporate videos and paintings in addition to photography.
Eliminating himself as subject, he steps behind the camera lending a voyeuristic eye to his evocative images. Instead of shying away from this taboo, Dempsey celebrates voyeurism as a reality of life. He positions the visitor as the voyeur watching provocative women masquerade through ethereal, unknown landscapes. Subversively sexual, yet physically distant, Dempsey controls these scenes with candor pushing the viewer in then out again.
Dempsey further illustrates this back-and-forth relationship by playing with the idea of dual opposites. The scantily clad women who populate his dream-like scenes illuminate notions of fear and desire, alien and intimate. In opposition, but necessary for existence, these dualities illuminate the shared subconscious of humanity. Exploring the liminal space between these opposing forces, Dempsey continues to embrace the necessity of opposites. His professed interest in androgyny, which seemingly dissipates through his use of all female models, slyly resurfaces with a recurring testicular theme to highlight the ultimate oppositional force.
