Darren Waterston's (born 1965, Fresno, CA) decades-long interest in representing idealized states metamorphosing into natural forms, and the reverse, has led to a hybrid practice in which the artist merges figurative and abstract styles, and allegorical and phenomenological meaning. He re-animates seemingly anachronistic experiences—the medieval bestiary, the Victorian funeral parlor, Renaissance panel paintings—as contemporary sensory reflections on loss, afterlife, and human endurance.
Waterston has been exhibiting his paintings, works on paper, and installations in the U.S. and abroad since the early 1990s. Recent solo exhibition highlights include Darren Waterston’s Filthy Lucre: Whistler’s Peacock Room Reimagined at Victoria and Albert Museum (2020); Peacock Room REMIX: Darren Waterston's Filthy Lucre, The Smithsonian Institution's Freer/Sackler Galleries (2015–2017); and Darren Waterston: UncertainBeauty, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA (2014–2015). He graduated with a BFA from the Otis Art Institute in 1988, having previously studied at the Akademie der Künste and the Hochschule für Bildende Künste, both in Germany.
Waterston's paintings are included in numerous permanent collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA; New York Public Library, New York, NY; The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX.
Waterston lives and works in Kinderhook, NY.