Mosaic pop art by Dean Moore shines at Riverdale's Elisa Contemporary Art Gallery

I’ve never been an overthinker so a lot of times when I started doing the mosaics I didn't think about what step I would take. I just did it and figured it out on the go.”

Dean Moore, artist

If you walk past the art gallery at 5622 Mosholu Ave., you’ll notice two eye-catching pieces of Pop Art done using mosaics – Wonder Woman and Blow Pop by Dean Moore.

Moore’s first mosaic piece, black and white tile against a forest green wall, hangs proudly in the foyer of his Riverdale apartment. Designed after a photo of his daughters, Emi and Eva, he used his first piece as a barometer for whether he would continue exploring textile mosaic art. 

“I thought, if I could do a portrait of them and it actually looks like them, then I can do anything,” Moore said. 

For him, the personal nature of making the pieces of his daughters meant he could recognize if any one piece was off and mastering that piece gave him the confidence to continue. 

It would be the first of many.

It all began after he and his family moved to Riverdale in July. He and his wife own rental properties in Syracuse where he has taken on do-it-yourself projects, including tiling and grouting the backsplash of his kitchen. After having excess tiles from his Riverdale and Syracuse homes. Moore decided to try his hand at mosaic tile art.

He is now represented by Elisa Contemporary Art Gallery in Riverdale. 

From Moore’s point of view, he isn’t an artist. He plays many roles in his advertising career and with his family. But he said “artist” is not how he would describe himself. himself. 

Growing up in New Rochelle, Moore lived with his artist mother, the artist of the family, surrounded by artwork and materials. His mother’s preferred medium was watercolors, but Moore said painting and drawing is not his strong suit. 

Regardless of style, Moore said art has been an outlet for him since he was a child. 

He said his imposter syndrome leaves him doubting his own artistic capabilities, but being represented by the gallery has helped him accept his talent. 

“I never in my wildest dreams thought I would have a gallery represent me, because I never considered myself that serious of an artist,” Moore said. 

He works for an advertising company’s financial department by day, and is a father to his daughters by night. Only after the children are tucked into bed, does he get to choose between watching television on the couch with his wife or sitting down at his workstation to do his art. 

“I never feel busy when I do art,” Moore said. 

In school, Moore struggled with academics, but art class often felt like a breath of fresh air, boosting his grade point average and offering him a space to excel. 

When he started his art journey during the pandemic, Moore began making collage art, adding cereal boxes to his materials. Now he does mosaics.

Moore’s art process begins with picking a portrait or picture he likes, often based on popular culture or things that are personal to him. He intentionally chooses photos with a heavy contrast, which makes it easier for the different colored tiles to draw upon the shading of the original photograph. He then begins laying down tiles on a mesh backing, aligning each piece to match the photo.  

At his workstation, a rectangular table in the corner of his family’s living room, Moore pointed out the details of the mosaic pieces. He explained that often when he is cutting tiles at night when his daughters are asleep, he has to break the pieces as quietly as he can over a bucket at his table, and when the smaller pieces break off they also get incorporated in the work, to fill the smaller gaps. He sources tiles from leftover home projects, or a tile store he frequents – Gen-Tile on Gun Hill Road

Moore said larger pieces take him anywhere between 40 to 50 hours, but he hasn’t established a step-by-step process, yet. 

“I’ve never been an overthinker – when I started doing the mosaics, I didn't think about what step I would take,” Moore said, “I just did it and figured it out on the go.”

For the holidays, Moore is working on a piece in the style of a 1985 Christmas advertisement for Air Jordan sneakers, depicting Santa’s legs poking out a chimney wearing a pair of red Jordans. 

The piece will be his first experiment with 3D, mixed media, using real pieces of wood for the fireplace and creating a mantel as the frame, similar to the original ad. Despite his contract with Elisa Contemporary Gallery, he said this piece is an experiment of his own.

In particular, it’s an ode to a work his mother made and used for the holidays. Moore explained that the house he grew up in didn’t have a fireplace, but his mother always loved them, so she painted a Christmas-themed fireplace on a large canvas. Every year, it was hung up to act as the family’s own fireplace. His Air Jordan mosaic is his take on this Christmas tradition of his childhood.