Perhaps no word better characterizes Brian Dailey than polytropos, the first adjective Homer applies to Odysseus in The Odyssey. Translated from the Greek as well traveled, much wandering, and, in a more metaphorical sense, as a person of many twists and turns, polytropos suitably describes Dailey’s life journey and its many peregrinations. As a student at Otis Art Institute (MFA, 1975) and in his ensuing art career in Los Angeles, Dailey participated in the pioneering creative experimentation defining the prolific artistic milieu in California in this era. His early career launched him on a path that—before bringing him full circle back to his roots as an artist—took him through a twenty-five-year interlude working on arms control and international security. These unusual experiences, which he approached with the same curiosity that has driven his current work, provide a fertile source of inspiration in his idiosyncratic and distinctive creative practice. 

Dailey’s exploration of both the external aspects of the human condition and the internal dimensions of the individual generates a dialectic for understanding cultures, societies, and individual behavior. His external work—or those engaging with The Human Experience—principally explores the challenges and issues of human behavior, war, peace, and societal self-destruction. These works examine the many faces and paradoxes of humanity, providing through the vehicle of art a window into its propensities and contradictions. In the artist’s own words: “I make art to challenge the mind, not to entertain it.” To achieve his conceptual and performance-based art he expands the parameters and uses of media to include photography, video, mixed media, installations, and painting. As such, his art defies easy categorization.

While the core of Dailey’s art addresses the social and political issues of the external world, he also questions internal dimensions of the human character. This facet of his artistic practice—encapsulated under the rubrics of Personal Journeys and Poetic Myths and Metaphors—explores introspective dimensions of individual character, particularly as effected by the choices and environments that shape one’s direction in life. In doing so, he draws on both the playful and serious dimensions of individual self-examination, using poetic structure for exploration as well as a means for resolution.

Dailey is based in Woodstock, Virginia and Carmel, California. His global travels provide a virtual third studio for his creative practice. His work is exhibited widely in the United States and internationally.