Brian Dailey

Perhaps no word better characterizes Brian Dailey than polytropos, translated as well traveled, much wandering, and a person of many twists and turns. As a student at Otis Art Institute (MFA, 1975) and in his ensuing art career in Los Angeles, Dailey participated in the creative experimentation defining the prolific artistic milieu in California in this era. His early career launched him on a path that—before bringing him back to his roots as an artist—took him through a twenty-five-year interlude working on arms control and international security. These unusual experiences provide a fertile source of inspiration in his idiosyncratic and distinctive creative practice.

Dailey’s exploration of both the external aspects of the human condition and the internal dimensions of the individual generates a dialectic for understanding cultures, societies, and individual behavior. His external work explores the challenges and issues of human behavior and societal self-destruction. These works examine the many paradoxes of humanity, providing a window into its propensities and contradictions.

While the core of Dailey’s art addresses the social and political issues of the external world, he also questions internal dimensions of the human character, particularly as effected by the choices and environments that shape one’s life direction. He draws on the playful and serious dimensions of self-examination, using poetic structure for exploration as well as a means for resolution.