The Bascom: A Center for the Visual Arts will open a new exhibition by Photography Resident Dean Kessmann on Saturday, April 18, 2026, in the Joel Gallery, with a free public artist talk at 3:00 p.m. Kessmann is a Professor of Photography at The George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design who spent his spring 2026 sabbatical in residence at The Bascom, his first formal artist residency in nearly two decades.
The exhibition, realism succumbing to abstraction or is it the other way around, draws from an ongoing project shaped by observation and attention to the everyday landscape. Working with a Hasselblad X1D II medium format digital camera during walks in and around Washington, D.C., Kessmann finds images in the overlooked details of familiar surroundings: sidewalks, various kinds of signage, concrete and brick surfaces, graffiti. The resulting photographs hover along the edge between representation and abstraction. Some function as direct records of the world; others dissolve into ambiguity, resisting easy description. The prints are made on fine art archival papers, and a subset of the work is mounted directly onto oriented strand board, sealed and varnished, creating a layered physical object that echoes the constructed surfaces Kessmann photographs.
In his artist statement, Kessmann writes that his goal is to make photographs that occupy visual and conceptual “in-between spaces”: images capable of being both/and rather than either/or. Inspired in part by writers such as Abraham Verghese, who observed that “to see the miraculous in the ordinary is a more precious gift than prophecy,” Kessmann approaches his practice as an act of paying attention: placing a rectangle around a scene that gives him pause, in the hope that the resulting photograph will do the same for a viewer. Kessmann’s work is held in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Walker Art Center, The Phillips Collection, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, among others, and has been reviewed in ARTFORUM, The Washington Post, Art Papers, and The Boston Globe.
“The Bascom has always believed in supporting living artists, not only by presenting their work, but also giving them the time and resources to pursue it. A residency like Dean’s is one of the most direct ways we can do that, and we’re glad this exhibition gives our community the chance to experience the results.”
said Billy Love, Executive Director of The Bascom.
The April 18 artist talk is free and open to the public. Kessmann will discuss his photographic practice, the making of this body of work, and his experience in residence at The Bascom. A summer reception will be held on Thursday, June 11, 2026, at 5:00 p.m.
For more information about the exhibition and upcoming programs, visit TheBascom.org or call 828.526.4949.
ARTIST TALK: Dean Kessmann
Date: Saturday, April 18, 2026
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Location: The Bascom, 323 Franklin Road, Highlands, NC 28741
Admission: Free and open to the public
Info: TheBascom.org | 828.526.4949
SUMMER RECEPTION
Date: Thursday, June 11, 2026
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Location: The Bascom, 323 Franklin Road, Highlands, NC 28741
Admission: Free and open to the public
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