Declan Riordan is a sculptor, painter, and printmaker focusing on self-discovery through expressionism.
Self-identity and honesty are the themes that I focus on primarily in my work. My aesthetic is to explore the grotesqueness of human nature and to explore identity and expression through a queer lens. I attempt to extract a grotesque beauty from the subjects I depict. Whether it be paint, printmaking, or sculpture, I find a similar obsession with impulsivity and the insatiable attitude I take towards my work. With jagged expressive strokes, I carve out my vision in paint, steel, and copper. A focus on anatomy and human figure has led me to utilizing lost wax bronze casts and forged steel as my primary means of depicting the human form. I am particularly driven by my selection of materials, and the exploration of finding a form in a flat piece of sheet metal or cylinder of wax. My spontaneity leads me to this exploration of form, as I begin to work on a piece I can see how the material is reacting to the form I wish to create, and as I begin to forge a metal piece, the steel informs me on form as much as any preliminary ideas I came into the studio with.
Solo Exhibitions
2023 - Hysterical Expression, Colvin Hall University of Maine, Orono, ME
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Group Exhibitions and Collections
2023 - Personal Threshold, Lord Hall Gallery University of Maine, Orono, ME
2023 - UMaine Student Art Exhibition 2023, Lord Hall Gallery University of Maine, Orono, ME - Juror Timothy Peterson
2023 - All Small Art Show, Rock and Art Shop, Bangor, ME
2022 - UMaine Student Art Exhibition 2022, Lord Hall Gallery University of Maine, Orono, ME
2022 - Clean Water Munka Studios, Lewiston, ME - Juror Carl Sheline
2022 - All Small Art Show, Rock and Art Shop, Bangor, ME
2021 - UMaine Student Art Exhibition 2021, Lord Hall Gallery University of Maine, Orono, ME
2021 - All Small Art Show, Rock and Art Shop, Bangor, ME
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Honors, Awards, and Collections
2023 Umaine Student Art Exhibit 2023, Honorable mention award
2023 Umaine Student Art Exhibit 2023, Selected for Solo Colvin Hall show
2022 CLAS Dean’s Exhibition Award
2022, 2021 University of Maine Printmaking Teaching Portfolio Collection
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Skills
Art: Drawing, Painting, Etching, Printmaking, Welding, Forging, Proficient in metalworking and woodworking
Software: Adobe Premiere, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Audition, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Flash, Microsoft Office, Proficient in Mac and Windows