Bio:

Prof. Robert Dohrmann received his MFA in Painting and Drawing in 1992 at Central Washington University, Ellensburg, Washington. In 1999 he took a position in our department in the Foundations area. Over the years he has taught a variety of studio courses, but currently the bulk of his teaching duties have been in the Core area and an online comic book theory course.

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In 2018, Dohrmann took the pseudonym Leon Richmond. In combination with traditional 2D materials and collage techniques, the objects used to construct his body of work are mostly large romantic cardboard print paintings, shadow box clocks, unlistenable LP records and a variety of found objects. The process of cultural anthropology (picking through thrift stores) is conducted anywhere he happens to find junk and antique stores. He likens these stores to museums where affordable consumer goods go to die and hopefully be reborn. When he finds something that piques his curiosity, he “re-arts” the object and gives it a new life through remix and mash-up strategies. The antiquated appearance in each work is crucial, as each vintage object comes with a ready-made veneer of age. It signifies American consumer history and points directly to our current relationship to many concerning topics of today, such as: 1. Middle/upper class consumerism, 2. Low-cost mass production, 3. Religious intolerance, 4. Unmonitored capitalistic greed, 5. Climate concerns, 6. Patriarchal power systems and 7. White American hierarchies.

 

If you have any comments or questions regarding the work in his portfolio, feel free to contact me at bobd@ou.edu.