Anthony Pearson USA, b. 1969

Anthony Pearson (b. 1969, Los Angles, CA) has produced works of multiple disciplines throughout the span of his career. Having begun as a fine arts photographer, Pearson eventually went on to focus more on material-based works that can neither be called a painting nor a sculpture in entirety. These wooden-framed reliefs Pearson refers to as “Embedments” are made using liquid hydrocal (clay, plaster, or bronze on other occasions), which is poured into frames stretched with fabric. Letting gravity do its work, the gypsum cement in its liquid form takes on a shape of its own, the differently tinted layers oozing over and around each other within the boundaries of the frame. Once dried and set, the piece is flipped over to remove the fabric underneath, revealing the remaining imprint.

Instead of focusing too much on the image itself, Pearson intuitively manipulates the material to challenge the boundaries of distinct art forms, merging the different disciplines of paintings and sculptures to create a new medium that serves as a haven from today’s obsession with blatancy and immediate gratification. The subdued manner of his works casts a sense of serenity around the space in which they are exhibited; while the eye dulled by flagrance may pass by without noticing, the perceptive who are willing to deliberate over each piece with meditative contemplation can appreciate the positive and the negative of space and light within his works.

Born in 1969, Pearson began his artistic studies at the California College of Arts, where he received his BFA in photography in 1996 and later an MFA at UCLA in 1999. Although having practiced photography for many years since, Pearson found the images unsatisfactory, claiming that “the intensity of the real world was never accurately rendered in [his] photographs.” As a result, Pearson began to transition towards sculpture, which he displayed alongside his photographs in exhibitions such as “William Obrien/Anthony Pearson” at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York, NY in 2007. Solo exhibitions since then include David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis, MN, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, IL, and more.

His works are included in public collections of The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, Art in Embassies, Washington, DC, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA.

Pearson currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.