Cleveland Dean is a Chicago-based multi-disciplinary artist, interested in human psychology, social media and self-reliance. Also known as Jackson Pollock of Chicago, Dean’s body of work includes black on black abstract expressionist paintings, drip paintings and a range of sculptures and installation works.

Cleveland studied at Illinois State University and later attended Harrington College of Design and took a drawing class as his love for the arts invigorated. Today, Cleveland’s work is his response to complex psychological topics manifested in abstract and conceptual ways, based on his studies of philosophy, sociology and psychology.

Working in various mediums, such as painting, mixed media, installation, video, sculpture and photography, self-taught artist Cleveland Dean creates artworks that explore social and psychological based issues of modern society. Digging into the realm of self-reliance, he investigates human behavior in abstract, contemporary paintings that are dense with thick textures of poured paint and lacquers, scorched and burnt from repeated applications of a heat gun, and above all layered with collage elements.

“My goal is to simply recondition people to think, adhere to knowledge and broaden their experience. In our society of the now, we are inundated with so much information that it makes it virtually impossible to pay attention to and gain expertise in any of it” – Cleveland Dean

Works of Cleveland Dean are in collections of both nationally and internationally art institutions.