Trey Egan b. 1979 — With paintings that channel rich saturation Trey Egan intermingles the vibrancy of color with indefinite organic forms. His lush and abstract use of oil exemplifies the beauty of pure paint and are made through the artist tapping into his subconscious, without the purpose of depicting specific visual imagery. Part of Egan’s artistic process is rhythmically informed by listening to progressive trance, liquid dubstep, and future bass in his studio. The layering of electronic sound generates specific energy into his works and educates the physical layering of paint on the canvas. This experience, called synesthesia, is the simultaneous perception of two or more stimuli as one gestalt experience. In this way, the artist’s non-objective visual language deals with the relationship between the subconscious and physical space and allows the viewer to navigate each composition through his or her own memories and experiences.

Trey Egan had his first solo show in 2012 at ArtHouston. His work evolved out of the work of the Abstract Expressionists — using color and form to incite the viewer. His early works depict paint and form that crowds the canvas, as the background and foreground blend into one. It is difficult to know where to look, but Egan’s use of line and color draws our eyes across the painting in wide swathes. At one point, Egan used his technique of crowded colors and movement against a white background, bringing even more attention to the colors and their purposeful placement on the canvas.

His current works have a softer tone, using smaller brushstrokes and brighter colors to create these clustered forms on the canvas. The paint seems to move off the canvas, jutting out into our own space, as Egan loads up his brush with paint. The background seems to be an enlarged view of the smaller brushstrokes — beckoning us into this multi-dimensional world of color. His brushstrokes hold multiple different colors as he moves his hand across the canvas, resulting in a combination of color that is both blended yet differentiated. His backgrounds add a new sense of dimensionality to his work, as the thick brushstrokes seem to move off the canvas and into the world around us.

Trey Egan received a Master of Fine Art from the University of North Texas College of Visual Art and Design. Early in his career, he was selected for many group exhibitions including some juried by esteemed curators Peter Doroshenko (Executive Director of the Dallas Contemporary), Toby Kamps (director of external projects at London’s White Cube gallery), Clint Willour (curator at the Galveston Arts Center) and artists Annette Lawrence, Vincent Falsetta, and Erick Swenson among others.

Egan’s brilliant solo debut during ArtHouston 2012, was followed by his selection to exhibit at the 2013 Texas Biennial in San Antonio. He followed with several successful solo exhibitions, including Systematic Motion in 2012, Be Still With Me in 2013, Signal Chamber in 2015, Wise With The Feeling in 2015, and Future Glow in 2017. Egan has been exhibited multiple times at Art Fairs, including the Dallas Art Fair, Art Aspen, Pulse art fair in South Beach, and Miami Art Week. Trey Egan’s work has been acquired by private and public art collectors across the nation and internationally, such as UT Southwestern, Dallas, TX, Hall Arts Residences, Dallas, TX, and Toyota Motor North America, Frisco, TX. Egan also works passionately as an educator in studio art at various universities throughout the DFW Metroplex.