Dean DeCocker - running at full tilt by California State Univeristy Stanislaus School of the Arts

Jamey Brzezinski

Light SIde / Dark SIde

deanDeCocker running at full tilt

deanDeCocker running at full tilt JAY J AY S a c r a m e n to , C A

250 copies printed on the occasion of the exhibition Dean De Cocker – Running at Full Tilt September 12 - October 27, 2012 JAYJAY 5520 Elvas Avenue Sacramento, CA 95819  www.jayjayart.com

Catalog Design: Kristina Stamper, Modesto, CA Catalog Printing: Claremont Print and Copy, Claremont, CA Catalog Photography: courtesy of the artist and Kristina Stamper, Modesto, CA

Front Cover Image: Navigational Markers, 2012, acrylic paint, metal, powder coat, wood, 26”x24”x14” Back Cover Image: Welcome to the Pacific, 2012, acrylic paint, metal, powder coat, wood, 24”x12”x16”

Contents

Renny Pritikin - Dean De Cocker: Running at Full Tilt �� 4

Running at Full Tilt - Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Artist Statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Curriculum Vita. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

deanDeCocker running at full tilt

Display is one of the things that sculptors, including Dean De Cocker, love. A little kid unfolds his hand and there sits a humble penny in the middle of that palm and the unassuming coin suddenly has an elevated presence. A magician daintily holds his scarf up at the top two corners with two fingers, turning it so we can see both sides, the top border taut, and that silly cloth is imbued with gravitas. De Cocker’s wall installations exhibit that same theatrical care in their presentation. The gigantic Hangar One near Stanford, one of the largest structures in existence, with its vast shadowed maw, was where the navy kept the airship USS Macon before WWII, nestled like a lozenge in the mouth. The hangar’s 1930 steel girders covered by galvanized steel sheets are the epitome of how modernism was able to transform brutal materials into aerodynamic and compelling industrial architecture. Dean De Cocker’s modestsized sculpture is inspired both by such elegant design and by industrial, aeronautic form. The constant in this exhibition of fifteen objects is the thin white metal rods that the artist bends, crooks, hooks and corners, to simultaneously serve as display solutions and essential elements of the works. Sometimes their primary function is to hold the work up without visually getting in the way; other times they are lines in space that form the essence of the piece. They make one think of the gantries and frameworks of Hangar One, or steel mills, or billboards. One subset of striking works in the exhibition—Welcome to the Pacific, Navigation Markers, and Last Waves— contain peanut or oblong shapes, often with thin brown and white stripes, of great sureness and emotionally pleasing balance, like the eccentric stripes on the exterior of some Italian cathedrals. There’s another set with smallish circular targets or coins, often on metal shafts, which seem to refer to railroad signage, or traffic barriers. A third group refers to aircraft wings, displaying lots of wooden chambers, their interiors cut off from the viewer by translucent material. In her work Shoes of the Disappeared the Colombian artist Doris Salcedo makes wall niches in the same way but filled with powerful referential objects; in De Cocker’s restrained, formal way, he chooses a mysterious emptiness for his cells—he’s more interested in how the world’s structure itself tells the story than in any one narrative. In 2005 the San Francisco artist Rigo 23 made a large, wooden, scale model nuclear submarine (Teko Mbarate)

whose side was partially open for inspection of the goings-on in the interior. A similar instinct informs several of De Cocker’s works, as in Night Patrol and Night Sortie, in which black rubber cylinders have their exteriors partially removed to reveal the superstructure underneath. It’s a metaphor for one of the driving sources behind our interest in making and viewing art: a desperate curiosity to speculate about what lies just behind the surface of the world’s ultimately unknowable mysteries. Dean De Cocker brings the only tools an artist can muster to bear on the problem: his unutterably disciplined craftsmanship. Renny Pritikin Oakland, CA 2012

Made in the Pacific, 2011, 42”x72”x45”, enamel paint, fiberglass, metal

running at full tilt - images

Dive on Target, 2012, 15”x24”x14”, metal, powder coat, vinyl, wood Collection of Estelle G Saltzman

Fear or Fury, 2012, 41”x38”x14”, acrylic paint, card board, metal, powder coat

Flight to Tinian, 42”x35”x18”, 2012, metal, plastic, powder coat

Last Days of the Pacific Campaign, 2012, 72”x18”x14”, metal, plastic, powder coat

Running at Full Tilt, 2012, 36”x24”x20”, acrylic paint, fiberglass, metal, powder coat, wood

Long Range Escort, 2012, 58”x20”x12”, metal, powder coat, vinyl, wood

Night Patrol, 2012, 43”x12”x6”, acrylic paint, metal, powder coat, wood Collection of Sarah Phelan and Susan Lyon

Night Sortie, 2012, 36”x10”x20”, acrylic paint, metal, plastic, powder coat, wood

Out of the Sky, 2012, 32”x19”x6”, metal, powder coat, vinyl, wood

Last Waves, 2012, 13”x60”x17”, acrylic paint, metal, powder coat, wood

Promising Targets, 2012, 5”x23”x7”, metal, powder coat, vinyl

Weekend in Waikiki, 2012, 37”x5”x8”, metal, powder coat, vinyl

Welcome to the Pacific, 2012, 24”x12”x16”, acrylic paint, metal, powder coat, wood

Ar tist Statement My work is part of a continuing series, “Blue Jackets Return.” From the first winged-shaped structures to the current work, I have been exploring my interest in formal elements by transforming flat, two-dimensional surfaces into three-dimensional objects. I derive much of my inspiration from everyday objects such as mailboxes, aircraft structures, wings and propellers, heavy machinery and architectural works. These objects become conceptual elements, which I transform first into drawings. Then, via techniques of aircraft construction, I have fabricated objects of inner structures and outer coverings that created volumetric enclosures. Recently, my interest in racecar fabrication and finishing and collecting vintage BMX bicycles from the 1970’s has led to subtle changes in structure and color. 2009 has led me to a return to painting. These paintings reflect my preoccupation with stripes. 2011 has led to one more revisited passion, dirt bikes and as they say “I feel a need for speed.” The titles of my works have no real meaning, but due to my interest in the construction techniques of World War II aircraft, I take my titles from the World War II battles in the South Pacific. September 2012

Dean De Cocker, Made in the Pacific, Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento, 2011, Installation

Dean De Cocker EDUCATION 1989 Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, M.F.A. 1987 California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA, B.A.

TEACHING 2003 - Professor, Department of Art Present California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2012 2011 2010 2009

“Running at Full Tilt,” JAYJAY, Sacramento, CA “On the Way to Sulfer Island,” Beaver Street Gallery, Flagstaff, AZ ”Made in the Pacific,” Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento, CA “Pacific Winds,” Skinner Howard Art, Sacramento, CA “Oahu before Dawn,” Frumkin Gallery, Santa Monica, CA “High Tide” Limn Gallery, San Francisco, CA “3rd Annual California Centered: printmaking, Featured Annual Honorees Solo Print Show” Merced Multicultural Center, Merced, CA 2008 “Battle of a Shallow Sea,” John Stuart Rodgers Faculty Development Center, California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA 2007 “Sources of Victory,” Limn Gallery, San Francisco, CA “Return of the Black Cat,” Beaver Street Gallery, Flagstaff, AZ “Like the Yorktown,” Ventura College Gallery, Ventura, CA 2006 “Extended Orders,” University Art Gallery California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA (Catalog) 2005 “South of Tawara,” Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno, NV “Pin Points in the Pacific,” Limn Gallery, San Francisco, CA “Silence in the Coral Sea,” Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA “Full Fathom Five,” JayJay, Sacramento, CA “The Pacific Boils Over,” Carnegie Art Center, Turlock, CA “Power in the Pacific,” Ridley Gallery, Sierra College, Rocklin, CA 2004 “A Year Away from the Pacific,” Parson’s Gallery Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA “Current and Winds,” Robert V. Fullerton Art Museum California State University, San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA (Catalog) “Fighting the Tides,” Branson School, Ross, CA 2003 “Past Magnetic North,” Limn Gallery, San Francisco, CA “Rough Seas,” Parks Exhibition Gallery, Idyllwild Arts, Idyllwild, CA 2002 “Rudder Shift,” Claremont City Hall Gallery, Claremont, CA 2001 “In the Shallow Lagoon,” JayJay, Sacramento, CA 2000 “Fragments from the Pacific,” Hunsaker/Schlesinger, Santa Monica, CA

1999

“Works From the Pacific Campaign,” The Huntington Beach Art Center, Huntington Beach, CA “Midway,” Gallery 8, Sacramento, CA “Silent Service,” Davis Art Center, Davis, CA “Whispering Distance,” Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA (Catalog) 1998 “Vanishing Tide,” Gallery Paradiso, Costa Mesa, CA 1997 “Speed Flags,” Wignall Museum/Gallery Chaffey College, Rancho Cucamonga, CA (Catalog) “Allied Advances,” Weintraub Thomas Gallery, Sacramento, CA “Under a Shattering Fire,” San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA 1996 “Principles of Recognition,” Gallery Paradiso, Costa Mesa, CA (Catalog) 1995 “In the Slot, 3 PM,” Boritzer/Gray/Hamano Gallery, Santa Monica, CA “Watches and Lookouts,” J. Maddux Parker Gallery, Sacramento, CA “Flame Out,” The Art Store Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (Catalog) 1994 “Blue Jackets Return,” Boritzer/Gray Gallery, Santa Monica, CA “Distances and Halts,” San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA 1993 “The Boatswain Pipe,” Mendenhall Art Gallery, Whittier College, Whittier, CA “Dean De Cocker - Mixed Media Constructions,” Solomon Dubnick Gallery, Sacramento, CA 1992 “Dead Reckoning - The Resin Works,” Daniel Saxon Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1991 “Sensitive Materials,” Cal Poly Pomona, Pomona, CA 1990 “Restricted Information,” Saxon-Lee Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1989 “Restricted Information,” Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (Selected from over one-hundred group exhibitions) 2012 2011 2010 2009

“In Praise of Collecting,” Carnegie Art Center, Turlock, CA “Art Auction 2012,” Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA “Art Auction 2011,” Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA “Art Auction 2010,” Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA “Faculty Exchange,” First Street Gallery, Humboldt State University, Humboldt, CA “Lust for Machines, Dean De Cocker and Matt Furmanski,” Santa Ana College Main Art Gallery, Santa Ana, CA 2008 “2332” Huntington Beach Art Center, Huntington Beach, CA 2006 “Eight Hours Difference,” Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University, UK 2005 “Nice to Meet You,” Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, CA “Transitional – Dean De Cocker and Ian Kennelly,” Fort Point Arts Community Gallery, Boston, MA 2004 “cut-ups, ready-mades, color theory,” JayJay, Sacramento, CA “California Fine Art,” 2004 California State Fair, Award of Merit in Sculpture, Sacramento, CA “Benefit Art Auction,” Huntington Beach Art Center, Huntington Beach, CA “Abstract-ed,” Limn Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2002 “The New JayJay,” JayJay, Sacramento, CA “The 99 Dollar Show,” Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, CA 2001 “Imported or Domestic,” Deparel, Amsterdam, Holland 2000 “New Works from the Permanent Collection,” Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA “The Spurgeon Experience,” Spurgeon Building, Santa Ana, CA 1999 “The Big Wave II,” Andrew-Shire Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

1998 1997 1996

“Circular Logic,” I-5 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA “For Art’s Sake,” Pasadena Art Alliance Benefit Auction, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA “The Big Wave,” Andrew-Shire Gallery, Los Angeles, CA “Fall Group Show,” Boritzer/Gray/Hamano Gallery, Santa Monica, CA “100 Dollar Show,” POST Gallery, Los Angeles, CA “The New Gallery Paradiso,” Gallery Paradiso, Costa Mesa, CA “L.A. International” Gallery Artist, Boritzer/Gray/Hamano Gallery, Santa Monica, CA “9th Annual Fringe of the Fringe Art Auction” Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA “12 x 12,” Weintraub Thomas Gallery, Sacramento, CA “Winter Group Show,” Boritzer/Gray/Hamano Gallery, Santa Monica, CA “Skin and Bone,” Noel Korten, Curator, Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Art Park, Los Angeles, CA

LECTURES (Selected from over fifty lectures) 2011 2010

“On the Way to Sulfer Island,” Beaver Street Gallery, Flagstaff, AZ ”Made in the Pacific,” Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento, CA “Sonoma State University, Be My Guest, Visiting Artist Lecture Series,” Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA 2009 “From Pearl to the Sea” RSCA Week, California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA 2008 “Return to Pearl” 643 A Project Space, Ventura, CA 2007 “Sources of Victory,” Limn Gallery, San Francisco, CA “Return of the Black Cat,” Beaver Street Gallery, Flagstaff, AZ “Like the Yorktown,” Ventura College Gallery, Ventura, CA 2006 “Extended Orders,” University Art Gallery California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA “Eight Hours Difference,” Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University, U.K. 2005 “Silence in the Coral Sea,” Exhibition Lecture, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA

AWARDS 2012 Research, Scholarship and Creativity Activity Grant, California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA 2011 Research, Scholarship and Creativity Activity Grant, California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA 2009 Finalist for City of Reno Public Art Commission, Reno, Nevada Research, Scholarship and Creativity Activity Grant, California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA 2008 Research Sabbatical, California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA 2007 Research, Scholarship and Creativity Activity Grant, California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA 2004 Award of Merit in Sculpture, “California Fine Art,” 2004 California State Fair, Sacramento, CA 1993 Finalist for “Pomona Metro Rail Project,” City of Pomona and L.A. County

BIBLIOGRAPHY (selected from over 50 articles) 2010

Dalkey, Victoria. “Dean De Cocker’s ‘icily elegant’ sculptures on display at Skinner/Howard Gallery.” Sacramento Bee April 18, 2010 2007 “Pulse.” Flagstaff Live May 3 – 9, 2007 Jerome. “Art Beat.” The Noise, arts and news May 7, Number 72 2006 Olivant, David. “Made in China.” “Eight Hours Difference,” Peter Scott Gallery Lancaster University, U.K. 2005 Vagner, Kris. “Artistic Community.” Reno News and Review 15 Dec. 2005. Morris, Barbara. “Beyond Plastic.” Artweek 36:8 (2005). Roth, David. “Dean De Cocker at Ridley Art Gallery.” Artweek 36:4 (2005). Millegan, Lisa. “Boiling Point.” Modesto Bee 11 Feb. 2005. SELECTED COLLECTIONS Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, Robert V Fullerton Art Museum, San Bernardino, CA, Laguna Beach Museum, Laguna, CA , Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA, Natomas Charter School, Sacramento, CA Bank of Sacramento, Meridian Plaza, Sacramento,CA, Merrill Lynch, Sacramento, CA, Sprint, Santa Clara, CA

Running at Full Tilt, JAYJAY, 2012, installation

Acknowledgements Dean De Cocker would like to thank Beth Jones and Lynda Jolley for their help and support in making this exhibition possible, Renny Pritikin for his wonderful essay, Kristina Stamper for the superb catalog design, Claremont Print and Copy for their expertise in printing the catalog.

See more of Dean De Cockerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work at: deandecocker.com

This catalog is dedicated to my Wife Laura.