Self-taught, American artist Dawson Stout came to painting unexpectedly during the pandemic in March 2020. Holding a masters of science in landscape ecology and environmental monitoring, he often uses his art as an extension of his academic background to explore our human relationship to space and the ways that our own psychologies merge and interact with the world around us. How can we visualize an internal landscape as a physical one? What is the “self” other than an impression of constantly changing external environments? Despite the paranoia this might spur, he questions what it means to be “alone” in landscapes so rich with life and how we might learn to appreciate the transient, interconnected, and absurd experience of living.

Born in Denver, Colorado, Dawson grew up outside New York and currently works in Berlin, Germany. His work has been shown internationally alongside artists including Joseph Beuys and John Paul Fauves. Recent honors include selection for a juried exhibition hosted by the assistant curator for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and publication in MILK Press. You may find him on Instagram.