When Charlotte artist Ivan Depeña begins a new personal project he starts with a question. “Can I get X to do Y and accomplish Z?” Like a jazz musician, he has mastered the foundational rules of his study and now seeks to break those rules. Depeña pushes boundaries “until the work has achieved a unique (visual and conceptual) language.” This process yields work that unfolds sequentially, stitching together a narrative of evolution and iteration, like instruments layering upon one another.
When creating public work, Depeña begins with a different question: Why? He strives to understand the full context of the project. A conceptual or aesthetic problem typically underpins the project and invites an original solution. Charlotteans may have sampled Depeña’s work in Southend (“Aurum”), uptown (“Duke Energy Plaza”), Gastonia (“Common Thread”), Cornelius (“Surface”), or, most recently, through the development of the Charlotte Rail Trail pedestrian bridge.
The Path of Charlotte Artist Ivan Depeña
His projects build on an artistic journey that has been unfurling since he was no older than seven. Inspired by music and the Graffiti Art movement, he decided to attend a high school dedicated to the arts before earning an undergraduate degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn for Architecture. This educational background combined with his life experiences and innate curiosity have resulted in an artist who is fluent in a range of disciplines such as drawing, painting, and sculpture.
“Drawing is the medium that comes most naturally to me. Plus, it’s the medium I rely on for translating ideas into reality. I see it as another language that can relay a thought with accuracy, while also being capable of extraordinary abstraction and nuance,” says Depeña. Despite his partiality to drawing, he nevertheless weaves together a range of media for many of his projects. He seeks the intersection where all elements are working together harmoniously or in purposeful and provocative discord.
Creative Intersections
In addition to traditional methods, Charlotte artist Ivan Depeña also integrates technology into his work. He uses it in part to interrogate the creative potential that exists when intention and chance coexist. “Technology allows various ways to approach this desired premise by creating an idea of randomness via software and/or algorithm. A specific example is a robot I program to randomly carve into my paintings. This creates unexpected compositions overlaid by a custom computer script that generates marks based on input and prompts,” explains Depeña. “I get involved directly and selectively remove myself throughout the making of the work. It is really enjoyable to see the results of this alchemical process manifest. I see results that I directly initiated and yet also things I never expected.”
To view Depeña’s personal works, visit his website www.ivandepena.com or find him on social media @depenastudio. To view his public works, simply travel around Charlotte and the surrounding area!
