E. DAN KLEPPER
Artist, photographer, and writer E. Dan Klepper has resided in the small, west Texas community of Marathon for over 20 years where he creates large-scale photo mosaics, prints, and experimental videos. His work combines a unique juxtaposition of subject matter rooted in the wild, untamed landscapes of the state, crafted with high-tech tools and methods.
“Living in the Big Bend has allowed me to create a portfolio of photo-based images and digital constructs representing the principles of the physical world,” Klepper explains. “To create the work, I combine the studio arts, photography, and technology to reconstruct the Texas landscape and its elements in ways that are meant to enhance their transformative characteristics. I use both digital and film photography as well as video and computer software in my process, frequently taking multiple photographs throughout a day or a season, and then combining them to create the final compositions. The results attempt to extract the uncanny from the natural world, to detect altered realities and dimensions, and to portray the curious laws of nature that guide our existence.”
“Klepper tackles the landscape and photography through an investigation of history, nature, and pop frontier culture,” Houston gallerist Sarah Foltz explains. “Many of his images are a kind of meditation on time, unfolding in the western landscape from seconds to hours to centuries.”
Klepper’s works can be found in collections, festivals, and exhibitions across Texas, the U.S., and abroad. Klepper’s book of fine art photography and essays, “Why the Raven Calls the Canyon”, is available in bookstores from Texas A&M University Press. Art critic and former Glasstire editor Christina Rees writes of the book, “Celebrated Texas photographer and writer E. Dan Klepper has captured the unsung and undiscovered vistas of the wild and vast Texas landscape. There he finds something sublime, not only in nature itself but in humankind’s idiosyncratic and fragile relationship with the natural world.”
“I was born and raised in Texas,” Klepper explains, “and earned my Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Texas, completing my coursework with an introduction to experimental video technology. This interest in art and technology sent me to Chicago, THE center of a lively time arts scene, where I was selected for the School of the Art Institute’s experimental video program. Thanks to their work/study financial assistance, I completed my master’s degree in the video arts, then continued to create works through arts council grants and support from the non-profit media organization The Center for New Television. Throughout the 1980s and early 90s, my experimental video works were represented and distributed by the Video Databank, Chicago.”
“Since returning to Texas, I have continued my exploration of innovative technologies, often applying them to the traditional art-making processes. Today, my work is represented by Foltz Fine Art in Houston and through my gallery and studio in Marathon.”
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (GROUP AND SOLO)
- 2023-24, Eye of A Collector, McNay Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas
- 2022-23, Supernatural Attraction, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas
- 2022, Alpine Artwalk Featured Artist, Alpine, Texas
- 2021, The Natural and Other Worlds, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas
- 2020, Houston Center for Photography Auction, Houston, Texas
- 2020, Contemporary West – E. Dan Klepper on Art and Photography, Haley Memorial Library & History Center, Midland, Texas
- 2019-20, Storied Lands, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas
- 2019, The Texas Aesthetic XIII, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas
- 2019, The New Show, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas
- 2019, State of Contrast, Kinzelman Art & Foltz Fine Art, Bank of America Center Lobby, Houston, Texas
- 2019, The Texas Contemporary Art Fair, Houston, Texas
- 2018, The West Texas Mystique, Houston Fotofest 2018 Biennial, Reaves/Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas
- 2018, Birds in Art, Reaves/Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas
- 2017, Fotosieptembre USA, San Antonio, Texas
- 2017, The Texas Aesthetic, Reaves/Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
- Linda and William Reaves Collection of Texas Art
- Houston Civic Art Collection
- Conoco, Houston, Texas
- Lakeside Country Club, Houston, Texas
- Texas A&M University Press, College Station, Texas
- Texas State University, Health Professionals Building, Round Rock, Texas
- University Health System, Salud-Arte Program, San Antonio, Texas
- Warburg Pincus, Houston, Texas
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- “Natural Attraction; A West Texas Photographer Chases a Constantly Changing Landscape”, Texas Highways Magazine, September, 2022
- “E. Dan Klepper and the Middle of Nowhere”, Dana Joseph, Cowboys & Indians Magazine, Feb/March 2018
- Show Review: State of Contrast – E. Dan Klepper: The West Texas Mystique”, Mackenzie McCreary, Southwest Art, March 2018
- “Marathon Run”, Susan L. Ebert, Dorado Magazine, March 2016
- “Off-The-Grid”, The Washington Post, April 29, 2015
- Texas Monthly, Jordan Breal, Sept. 2011, Volume 39, Issue 9, P. 54
- American Film Institute, Catalogue, 1989, P. 13
- Video Drive-In Valencia, Catalogue (Spanish/ English), Sept 1989, P. 31
- Encontros, Catalogue (Portuguese/English), 1989, P. 126
- Screen, M. Soltis/D. Schebers, Nov 1989, P. 20
- New City, Tim Jacobs, July 1989, P. 8
- New Art Examiner, Review, Jeff Abell, “Basically Boxes”, March 1986, P. 50
- Chicago Tribune, David Prescott, May 1985, Sec. 7, P. 45
- New Art Examiner, Review, Lucas Haas, Feb. 1981, P. 17
- Visions, Satoru Fujii, Editor, Feb. 1981, P. 73
FESTIVALS and GROUP EXHIBITIONS
- American Film Institute Video Festival, Los Angeles, California
- Australia Video Festival, Adelaide, Australia
- European Media Art Festival, Osnabruck, Germany
- Video Shorts, Seattle, Washington
- Berlin International Film Festival, Germany
- 13th Poetry Film/Video Festival, San Francisco, California
- Video Culture International, “New Media”, Toronto, Canada
- Great Lakes Film and Video Festival, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- San Sebastian International Video Festival, Spain
- Center for Media Arts, “Festival De Video”, Paris, France
- Art in Chicago, 1945-1995, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois
- Vipfilm 8, Berlin, Germany
- Multiples, Atlanta, Georgia
- Family Ties, New Langton Arts, San Francisco, California
- Encontros, Glubenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
- Video Drive-In, Ivam, Valencia, Spain
- Video Drive-In, Nci, Lisbon, Portugal
- Chicago Works: Art from The Windy City, Erie Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
- Kunst Video, Gallery F15, Moss, Norway
- Basically Boxes, Klein Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
- Making Myths, White Columns, New York, New York
- Chicago Survey, The Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada
- The Science of Fiction/The Fiction of Science, Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois
- Myths and Miracles, Center For New Television, Chicago, Illinois
- Chicago Scene, Mandeville Art Gallery, San Diego, California
- Chicago Video, The Kitchen, New York, New York
- Video 8, Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, New York
- Video – Chicago Style, Global Village, New York, New York
- 3 Erlanger Videotage, University of Erlanger, Germany
- Video Works, West Hubbard Street Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
- Chicago Video, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota
- Sexuality Series, Rhode Island Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island
- Video Pool, Winnipeg, Canada
- Modern Dangers, Hallwalls, Buffalo, New York
- New Wave Series, First Street Forum, St. Louis, Missouri
- Roles, Representations, Sexuality, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Science and Fiction, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts
- Television, N.A.M.E. Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
BOOKS
- Why the Raven Calls the Canyon ~ Off the Grid in Big Bend Country, Texas A&M University Press (Spring 2017)
- 100 Classic Hikes in Texas, Mountaineers Books, (Spring 2009)
- Spirit Walker ~ JD Challenger and His Art, Tide-Mark Press (2005).
- Ghostdancing ~ Sacred Medicine and The Art of JD Challenger, Stewart, Tabori And Chang, 1998. (Edwin Daniels)
- Wolf Walking, Stewart, Tabori And Chang, 1997. (Edwin Daniels)
WRITING/PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS
- 2018, Bronze, Magazine Photographer of the Year, 2018, International Regional Magazine Award
- 2015, Gold, Photo Series, International Regional Magazine Association
- 2015, Silver, Magazine Photographer of The Year, International Regional Magazine Association
- 2014, Silver, Travel Feature, International Regional Magazine Association
- 2014, Silver, Photo Series, International Regional Magazine Association
- 2010, Silver, Historical Feature, International Regional Magazine Association
- 2009, Bronze, Historical Feature, International Regional Magazine Association
- 2004, Gold, Travel Feature, International Regional Magazine Association
- Excellence in Craft, Books, Texas Outdoor Writers Association
- Excellence in Craft, Photography, Texas Outdoor Writers Association