Dean Chamberlain has been an exhibiting artist since 1982. His gallery shows have included Tony Shafrazi Gallery, Southeast Museum of Photography, Tweed Museum of the University of Minnesota, Musee Carnavalet in Paris, Hanshin Gallery in Osaka, and Ethnographic Museum in Budapest. He has been an artist-in-residence at Dartmouth College, and a guest lecturer at Art Institute of Chicago, School of Visual Arts in New York, University of California Los Angeles, Art Center of Pasadena, Southeast Museum of Photography, and University of Minnesota’s Tweed Museum. Portfolios of his work have been published in several fine art publications.

Chamberlain developed his light painting technique, which involves working with his camera and subject in complete darkness, in 1977 while a student at Rochester Institute of Technology. He has used it exclusively in his work since that time, exploring a wide range of ever-expanding motifs which include portraits, forests, figures, flowers, and architecture. These images are created entirely in the camera, with no computer manipulation. Using extremely long exposures in sessions that often extend to four or five hours, he moves through the composition space illuminating each individual element, not so much photographing a moment but painting with light through time and space. To date, Chamberlain has created works of art with such collaborators as; Paul McCartney, Keith Haring, Francesco Clemente, Jeff Koons, Timothy Leary, Kenny Scharf, Alex Grey, David Bowie, and Duran Duran.

Chamberlain currently resides in Venice, California.