Derric Clemmons

I'm a Chicago Born artist, South side resident.  I have a studio in the Pilsen community.  Artistic experiences are in canvas work, painted wood sculpture, both free standing forms and wall mounted. These have been the mediums I've used to create hieroglyphic-like-symbolisms and expressive abstract responses to the unique Chicago environment.

My studies in Art took me to Columbia College for the Arts and later, Europe 1984 to meet and learn the techniques and skill sets of Italian Artists I further developed my work in the area of Abstraction, both Cubist and Abstract Expressionism.

I began the painted sculpture work, METROPOLIS  in 2013 as a general theme to much of the more progressive work, coming out of the successful series “ The Joy of Being” and“Anatomika.”  These were a series of quick produced water color / acrylic paintings on paper as a substantive exercise for greater work.

The  Later Sculpture compilations produced is an initiative for me to translate the idea of growing, bounding forward awkwardly at times as a people, using wood, graphite, paint and paste , sorting through the detritus of communities  for subject matter, of society and present them much like television screens vying for attention through the windows in a building. I was always fascinated by what happens within the recesses of dwellings and the spaces we inhabit. Its there that we question how divided, and/or how connected we are in our needs, wants, desires, aspirations.

I also question by action of the work the moral judgments we make, and where society is heading in its behavior.  A 'shift' in standards has produced a culture of precariousness.  A bounding from one questionable act to another, a circus of the banal and the malevolent, and then thereafter, hope and promise.  All aspects of our life presenting themselves in a classroom line up of humorous imagery and statement.

My experiences has also extended to Steel based public sculpture andWood panel mural work in Chicago.