Cultural/Performing Arts
Dean is a 1974 graduate of Ravenna High School. He was a member of Band, Stage Band, Tattler Staff, High Times Staff, Aardvark, Art Club, and participated in athletics. His talent in art led to a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art. Additional studies were completed at Kent State University, the Chicago Art Institute and the completion of a scholarship award at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. In 1979 Dean located in New York City as an apprentice to Jack Beal, one of the foremost realist painters in America. He began exhibiting his paintings in New York in the early 1980’s, including group and one-person exhibitions. Dean has received numerous mural commissions. His works have been featured in ten private and public collections, over 30 group exhibitions, two-person and solo exhibitions, and commissions which feature three outstanding works: Five Murals for Montefieore Hospital in New York, a mural diptych for the Desmond Hotel in Malvern, Pa., and the renowned six 10’ x 24’ murals depicting the history of Delaware County for the Courthouse Law Library in Media, Pa. Dean’s work has been recognized in over eleven publications from the American Artist to the Christian Science Monitor. Dean and his wife, Ellen, also an artist, reside in and exhibit their work in Philadelphia. Nationally and internationally, Dean has artistically etched his place in history.