DEREK BUCKNER
Artist Statement
Born in 1970, Derek Buckner lives in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife, novelist Joanna Hershon, their twin sons and daughter. The artist graduated from LaGuardia High School of Music and Art, as well as Vassar College, The Art Students League of New York and received a B.F.A. from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Throughout his career as a painter, Derek Buckner has explored many different themes in his work but has always found himself returning to the urban landscape. Born and raised in Brooklyn, the artist has drawn and painted the Gowanus Canal and its surrounding areas for the past twenty-five years, and as the area has developed and changed, so has his work.
This new series—created during the pandemic—continues to focus on the industrial areas of the Gowanus, but as the global climate crisis intensifies, his paintings are also informed by more overt anxiety: What does it mean to bear witness to a rapidly changing landscape? Buckner’s personal and artistic investment in this shifting industrial neighborhood explores the relationship between destruction and growth, strength and impermanence.
Throughout his career as a painter, Derek Buckner has explored many different themes in his work but has always found himself returning to the urban landscape. Born and raised in Brooklyn, the artist has drawn and painted the Gowanus Canal and its surrounding areas for the past twenty-five years, and as the area has developed and changed, so has his work.
This new series—created during the pandemic—continues to focus on the industrial areas of the Gowanus, but as the global climate crisis intensifies, his paintings are also informed by more overt anxiety: What does it mean to bear witness to a rapidly changing landscape? Buckner’s personal and artistic investment in this shifting industrial neighborhood explores the relationship between destruction and growth, strength and impermanence.
Click Here for Derek Buckner's interview with Brooklyn Daily Eagle
