March 04, 2025

ArtCenter College of Design Presents Devin Troy Strother: Dancing in the Dark

Multimedia Exhibition of ArtCenter Alumnus Highlights 15 Years of Artistic Exploration


ArtCenter College of Design is pleased to present Dancing in the Dark—the first major solo exhibition at a nonprofit institution dedicated to the work of Los Angeles artist and ArtCenter alumnus Devin Troy Strother. Spanning two locations, ArtCenter’s Hillside Campus (March 22 – July 26) and South Campus (March 22 – June 21), the exhibition offers an unprecedented and comprehensive look at Strother’s adventurous body of work.

Visitors to the exhibition will see a selection of major works produced during the past decade, including large-scale paintings featured in the spacious Williamson Gallery (Hillside Campus); recent and new video works presented at the Mullin Gallery (South Campus); and installations that also serve as platforms for performances to be staged throughout the run of the exhibition.

Speaking about the exhibition, Strother writes:

“The title of this exhibition is inspired in part by Bruce Springsteen’s song 'Dancing in the Dark' and in part by Bruce Nauman’s video performance 'Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square.' While I wouldn’t call myself an avid Springsteen fan, I am a huge admirer of Nauman, and the title resonates deeply with me and my artistic practice on multiple levels.

Dancing in the Dark serves as a metaphor for my ever-evolving creative journey, one that has endured and transformed over the past 15 years. Although I was formally trained as a painter and illustrator, my practice has expanded to include film, performance, book publishing, and sculpture. Nearly 20 years after graduating from ArtCenter, I feel incredibly humbled to be invited to participate in this exhibition at the very institution that provided me with the foundational knowledge and tools I’ve relied on to build my career.

It has been a journey during which I have sustained myself solely through creating and selling my work in galleries. To this day, I remain astonished that I have been able to make a living by selling images and objects. A reality that continues to fuel my exploration and artistic evolution.

While I am deeply aware of the privileges and opportunities I’ve been afforded, the life of an artist remains one of struggle, hustle, and constant self-reflection. As I look back on the surfaces and structures I’ve created—assembled over time with curiosity and persistence—I feel both satisfaction and embarrassment. These emotions coexist, churning within me, leaving me uncertain which one holds more weight.

My work is often recognized for its humor, irony, bold color palettes, and a playful yet thought-provoking examination of themes such as race, identity, pop culture, and art history. My ever-expanding practice incorporates an eclectic mix of materials and extends beyond traditional mediums to include video, performance, publishing, and even cooking as a form of relational aesthetics.

Most recently, my work has been centered on communication. Language has always played a fundamental role in my practice—particularly slang, minority vernacular, code-switching, and the ways in which marginalized communities and younger generations reinterpret past and present expressions. Through a process of social osmosis, phrases, descriptions, and everyday language continuously evolve, morphing into new forms that become embedded in contemporary conversation and interaction.”

Dancing in the Dark is made possible with support from the Pasadena Art Alliance.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Devin Troy Strother was born in 1986 in West Covina, California. He received a BFA in Illustration from ArtCenter College of Design in 2009 and completed a residency at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2010. His work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the United States and internationally. His work can also be found in the collections of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and in prominent private collections. In addition to working as an artist, Strother founded Coloured Publishing in 2015 with designer Yuri Ogita. The joint project has published dozens of editioned works, including artists’ books, print sets, zines, t-shirts, buttons, and more.

EXHIBITION LOCATIONS & DATES

Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery
ArtCenter College of Design, Hillside Campus
1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, CA 91103
March 22 – July 26, 2025
Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Saturday | Noon–5 p.m.
Admission is free.

Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery
ArtCenter College of Design, South Campus
1111 S. Arroyo Parkway, Pasadena, CA 91105
March 22 – June 21, 2025
Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Saturday | Noon–5 p.m.
Admission is free.

EVENTS

Opening Reception with the Artist
Saturday, March 22, 2025 | 6–9 p.m.
Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery, ArtCenter South Campus

ArtCenter invites the public to a free exhibition opening reception at the Mullin Gallery, offering an opportunity to engage with Strother and view his work.

ArtNight Pasadena – Exhibition Sneak Peek
Friday, March 14 | 6-10 PM
Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery, ArtCenter South Campus
Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery, ArtCenter Hillside Campus

Visitors will get a “sneak peek” of the exhibition as part of ArtNight Pasadena.

Printed Matter’s 2025 LA Art Book Fair (LAABF)
Friday, May 16 through Sunday, May 18
(Opening Night celebration on Thursday, May 15)
Mullin Transportation Design Center, 950 South Raymond Avenue, Pasadena

In addition to Dancing in the Dark on view, Strother’s Coloured Publishing project will be a vendor at the fair and the artist will participate in a special talk on Saturday, May 17.

ABOUT THE GALLERIES

About Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery: The Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery has established a broad reputation for exploring the intersection of science and art. Through a nearly three-decade series of programs and exhibitions, it has contributed to the emergence of an international movement among universities, journals, conferences, artistic studio practices and design strategies that promotes an intensified collaboration between the humanities and sciences.

About the Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery: Located in the South Campus lobby of ArtCenter’s 1111 building, the Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery serves as a welcoming point for students, faculty, staff and the public. Extending the reach of the College’s multifaceted Exhibitions department, this modestly scaled space is optimized for high impact presentations of solo exhibitions and small group projects. Situated at a major gateway between Pasadena and Northeast Los Angeles, the space was designed to accommodate media in a wide variety, from intimately scaled works of art to automobiles, reflecting and intersecting with the multiple disciplines of ArtCenter’s curricula. The adjacent exterior courtyard provides opportunities for social and educational programs.

About ArtCenter Exhibitions: ArtCenter Exhibitions includes the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery at the Hillside Campus in Pasadena above the Rose Bowl, the Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery, the Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography Gallery and the Hutto-Patterson Exhibition Hall at the South Campus a mile from Old Pasadena. These curated spaces embody ArtCenter's institutional will to understand artistic thinking and design strategies as levers in promoting social advancement, the pursuit of humanitarian innovation, and the use of critical inquiry to clarify objectives and truths. Using the lens of contemporary art and design, the mission of ArtCenter Exhibitions is to ignite emotional resonance, provoke intellectual dissonance and conjure unexpected pathways of thinking.

About ArtCenter: Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, ArtCenter College of Design is a global leader in art and design education. ArtCenter offers 11 undergraduate and seven graduate degrees in a wide variety of industrial design disciplines as well as visual and applied arts. Renowned for both its ties to industry and its social impact initiatives, ArtCenter is the first design school to receive the United Nations’ Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status. Throughout the College’s long and storied history, ArtCenter alumni have had a profound impact on popular culture, the way we live and important issues in our society.

CONTACT

ArtCenter College of Design
Marketing and Communications
pressoffice@artcenter.edu

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Devin Troy Strother