In Conversation: Devan Horton

Artist Statement:

In my current series, Penchant, I am exploring our culture's obsession with consumption and waste by analyzing our relationship with garbage. Through experimentation with color and texture, threatening piles of trash evoke feelings of curiosity and playfulness while creating a sense of foreboding. Pulling from an interest in ancient societies and a frustration of always finding trash in nature, I began thinking about the evidence that will remain of our civilization's existence. How will other future societies view our priorities and how we went about solving our problems. I aim to confront my audience with our waste obsession by allowing them to rethink their own individual relationship with the things they consume, while also bringing the awareness needed to confront irresponsible industries about what they are producing in order to fix this systemic problem. Penchant brings to light our relationship with waste in hopes of convincing others that even through the endless social and economic issues compounding around us, our planet is always of the utmost importance, and we as a species must work together to preserve its beauty for generations to come.

Biographical Statement:

Devan Horton is a Northern Kentucky artist who creates oil paintings to call attention to the ongoing issue of waste in our culture. Since receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Northern Kentucky University, Devan has crafted and promoted her artistic career by exhibiting in local and national galleries, including Manifest Gallery, Caza Sykes Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio.

While developing her next project, Devan frequently turns to nature, specifically hoping to correct ways in which human activity has corrupted nature. Devan’s most recent work confronts her audience's relationship with garbage in hopes to convince others that even with the endless social and economic issues compounding around us, our planet is always of the utmost importance, and we, as a species, must work together to preserve its beauty for generations to come.