Artist Talk: Bryan Florentin

About

Join us for an artist talk by Bryan Florentin at The Gallery at UTA, presented in conjunction with Transitions, an exhibition celebrating recently retired faculty members of the Department of Art & Art History.

Florentin’s photographs and installations explore the tension between order and disorder, examining how we impose structure on an increasingly complex world. His recent works, including Prepared Shelves and Untitled (Accretion/Flux), currently on view at The Gallery at UTA, investigate the assembly and disruption of objects and materials. Moving between the photographic concepts of index and analogy, his practice weaves together the traditional craft of photography with event-based qualities of happening as a genre. Rich with references to the pioneering photographic experiments of Louis Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot, as well as contemporary art, theory, and broader cultural histories, Florentin’s meticulously choreographed compositions suggest chance and spontaneity while remaining carefully orchestrated.

Florentin’s artistic practice has developed alongside his longstanding engagement with the academic communities of North Texas. He earned his BA in Art and Performance from the University of Texas at Dallas in 1993 and his MFA in Photography from the University of North Texas in 1998. He has exhibited nationally, received numerous awards, and taught at UTA for more than 20 years. His contributions to The Gallery at UTA have also included curating Materiality and Identity: Garth Amundson, Pierre Gour, and Paho Mann in 2013.

Join Bryan Florentin for a closer look at the material investigations, processes, and systems behind his constructed images. The conversation, moderated by Dr. August Jordan Davis, Chair of the Department of Art & Art History, will also explore the dialogue between photographic history and contemporary artistic practice.

Transitions is on view at The Gallery at UTA through November 14, 2026.