Derek Dunlop’s work questions the process of subject formation and the tradition of art making. His research has focused on the political, ethical, and philosophical conditions for contemporary abstraction through the mediums of painting and drawing. More recently, he has been developing sculptures and installations of “table works.” Using the affective vitality of found objects as a starting point, the new series of works are created to think through the creative agency of things. Evolving from very specific landscapes, this work is concerned with the way in which the present is continually haunted by the past.

Derek Dunlop completed his MFA at the University of British Columbia and will be pursuing his PhD in Art History at the University of Toronto in 2017. Dunlop was a participant of the inaugural Open Sessions program at The Drawing Center, and partook in the thematic residency Are We Looking at Dead Birds? at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. He has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards including the B.C. Binning Memorial Fellowship and the Andrew MacIntosh Memorial Book Prize in Fine Arts. Dunlop’s work has been presented in art spaces throughout North America including UCLA New Wight Gallery, Los Angeles, and Artspeak, Vancouver.