Courtesy of the Artist and albertz benda, New Yor﷽k/Los 𝔉Angeles

Devon DeJardin (b. 1993) is a self-taught, multimedia artist from Portland, Oregon currently working out of Los Angeles, Ca. In his adolescent years DeJardin suffered from severe depression and anxiety, finding refuge in painting. DeJardin uses art — and art history — to understand the world and his place in it. With a background studying spiritual traditions from around the world, and an appreciation for the emotional, muscular abstraction of Picasso, Nevelson, Duchamp, Krasner, DeJardin’s paintings, drawings, and sculpture reference the body, forces of nature, and the application of philosophy to lived experience. With a sense of geometry that is both architectural and organic, and a refined palette that highlights the life of the mind, DeJardin muses on strength, fragility, control, and surrender. DeJardin’s work, for now, focuses on guardians – on entities and forces that protect us, guide us, and challenge us to grow. But often, our rea💯l life ‘guardians’ come in forms we don’t recognize: challenges that force us to learn new skills, losses that teach us emotional resilience, crises that show us our inner strength.