DOMINANT DANSBY
"My collage series is deeply influenced by my relationship to jazz and the idea of communicating through the exchange of energy. I look at these collages as predetermined structures over which some improvisation takes place – much like avant-garde jazz. I create art with the assumption that I’m being directed by much of the same energy that directed the jazz greats who created the complex riffs that fill my studio during my breaks."
– Dominant Dansby
Dominant’s studio practice is inherently process-driven, emphasizing material, texture, dimension, and sensory engagement. His ongoing collage series—formed from layered papers, recycled drawings, studies of drapery, and wood—functions as an improvisational score. With each piece, Dansby orchestrates juxtaposed surfaces, marks, and textures in ways that feel both physical and intuitive.
This focus on process parallels the material experimentation of artists like Jack Whitten, who saw jazz and improvisation as analogs to painting itself. Whitten once wrote that the rhythm and vibration of jazz offered a conceptual equivalent to visual art—a notion that resounds in Dominant’s work, where gesture and pulse are as present as line and color. Whitten’s pursuit of innovation through tools, layering, and rhythmic mark-making expanded the possibilities of abstraction and materiality. His tessellated surfaces and use of custom techniques underlined a belief that process can be both intellectual and visceral. Whitten’s work was grounded in abstraction as a vehicle for memory, history, and sensory experience—an approach that resonates with how Dominant constructs meaning through layered media and energetic exchange.