About Dean Dempsey
Born 1986. Dean Dempsey is an artist, film director, film screenwriter and film actor.
Dean Dempsey (born 1986) is an American visual artist, actor, and filmmaker based in New York City. His art practice spans a range of media including photography, painting, drawing and video. He is also the writer and director of his debut feature film Candy Apple, for which he won the NY Perspectives Award at the Winter Film Awards the following year. Dempsey later directed and co-wrote his second feature-length movie Deadman's Barstool (2018), and played lead actor in Flasher (in post-production) . In 2018, he was featured in New York Magazine's "The Cut - They Seem Cool" column entitled, "The Painter Who Loves To Hate The Art World."
Life and career
Dempsey was born in Tucson, Arizona. He received his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2009 with study at the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London in 2008. He went on to do a residency at the Villa Waldberta in Feldafing, Germany in 2012, which resulted in the exhibition Next Generation: Contemporary American Photography at Munich's Pasinger Fabrik & Amerika Haus that same year. Dempsey's studio is in Orchard Street, New York City. His first two-artist exhibition in the New York City was held at the BOSI Contemporary gallery in 2012, curated by Renato Miracco and entitled Mutatio. This was followed in 2013 by his first solo exhibition there.
Exhibitions
2007 - Another Country, Worth Ryder Gallery, University of California, Berkeley, curated by Allan deSouza. 2007 - Regeneration, Hall of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco 2009 - Dislocation, Exploration and Meaning Gallery 39K, Lahore, Pakistan. 2009 - Re-Think, Matisonn Burgin: Shoreditch Space, London 2010 - Counterpoint 2010, Togonon Gallery, San Francisco. 2010 - Borders, Root Division, San Francisco 2011 - Dean Dempsey: Selected Works, solo exhibition, Togonon Gallery, San Francisco 2012 - Dean Dempsey, solo exhibition, MC2Gallery, Milan, Italy. 2012 - En Foco: Selected Works from the Permanent Collection, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, D.C. 2012 - Art Stays 2012, 10th Festival of Contemporary Art, with MC2 Gallery, Ptuj, Slovenia. 2012 - En Foco: Selected Works from the Permanent Collection, Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, New Jersey 2014 - 5 Year Anniversary Show, Ever Gold Gallery, San Francisco 2016 - "Black", Two-person exhibit, Spring/Break Art Show, New York, NY, curated by Kara Brooks.
Collections Dempsey's work is held in the collections of: Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California Kinsey Institute, Bloomington, Indiana En Foco, New York City
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Important facts
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Frequently asked questions
Who is Dean Dempsey?
American visual artist and actor
When was Dean Dempsey born?
Dean Dempsey was born in 1986.
What is Dean Dempsey's occupation?
Dean Dempsey is an artist, film director, film screenwriter and film actor.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Dean Dempsey. https://biography.guide/dean-dempsey/
MLA: "Dean Dempsey." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/dean-dempsey/.
Chicago: "Dean Dempsey." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/dean-dempsey/.
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