Crowded Condition brings together paintings shaped by an ongoing exploration of composition, contrast, content, and the fragile balance between harmony and chaos. My approach has also been influenced by six years of teaching at the Camillus House Art Program, where encouraging students to measure their work against their own highest achievements has led me to apply the same standard to my practice. I see this tension between order and disorder as fundamental not only to painting, but to the conditions in which we exist.
My work develops through an ongoing dialogue with art history and with artists whose explorations of human relationships and the natural world continue to resonate—from Giorgione, Vermeer, Manet, Winslow Homer, and Edward Hopper to Francis Bacon, Eric Fischl, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. My process often begins with a 3:4 grid related to the Golden Section, using color, contrast, and spatial relationships as a foundation from which compositions gradually emerge. As the paintings evolve, intentions shift and unexpected redispositions become part of the process, creating a complex negotiation between structure and discovery.
The title Crowded Condition refers both to our contemporary experience and to the density of the creative process itself. The paintings begin as a form of personal reflection and self-expression, but ultimately seek to establish a connection with the viewer. I hope they move from visual engagement to intellectual curiosity and, finally, toward a deeper sense of connection—to oneself, to others, and to our shared human experience.
David Rohn is a Miami-based multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses painting, photography, installation, performance, and found-object sculpture. He studied art and urbanism at Colgate University and New York University before pursuing architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
Rohn began painting in New York in the early 1980s and continued his practice in Paris, where he exhibited at Galerie Julien Pellat and participated in exhibitions including the Salon de Montrouge and La Masse des Beaux-Arts. He moved to Miami in 1992, where his practice expanded to include writing, socially reflective and interactive installations, and performative projects.
Since 2008, Rohn’s [self]-Portraiture series has developed into an evolving investigation of identity, representation, consumer culture, and the relationship between the individual and contemporary society. More recent works incorporate cast-off and found objects, photography, and painting, reflecting on disposable culture and consumerism.
Rohn’s longstanding engagement with art history has also informed bodies of work inspired by Dante’s Inferno, Catholic saints, and contemporary images derived from Old Testament stories, often populated by the indigent street dwellers characteristic of Miami and other contemporary urban settings.
His work has been exhibited and reviewed extensively throughout South Florida, as well as in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and Berlin. He continues to develop collaborative and performative projects with Danilo de la Torre and other collaborators through LaboMamo Collab, alongside his unofficial public art projects based on his self-portraiture.
Dot Fiftyone is a Miami based gallery with a focus on contemporary Latin American art. Founded in 2003 by Alfredo Guzman and Isaac Perelman, the gallery is dedicated to exhibiting emerging and established artists whose works encourage dynamic ideas and discourses. Workshops, lectures, events, as well as philanthropy are also part of the gallery program.
Mr. Perelman, former President of the Miami Art Dealers Association (MADA), and Mr. Guzman, former chairman on the Board of the Wynwood Arts District Association (WADA), have reinforced their involvement in the development of the arts in the city.
Dot Fiftyone enjoys a strong collector base in Miami, New York, Houston, Los Angeles, and Latin America.
