Glenn Brown (survey): Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio

9 September 2016 - 15 January 2017
Solo Exhibitions

This is the first solo museum exhibition in the United States to survey the work of renowned London-based artist Glenn Brown. 

Glenn Brown exhibition

Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio USA

9 September 2016 – 15 January 2017

This is the first solo museum exhibition in the United States to survey the work of renowned London-based artist Glenn Brown (b.1966). Painting steadily for the last three decades, Brown crafts paintings with an exquisite level of polish and detail that nevertheless retain an elusive fluidity. To look forward he peers backward, delving hundreds of years deep into the bloodlines of painting. From the 17th and 18th century Baroque and Rococo eras to the modern work of German-British painter Frank Auerbach and kitschy Sci-Fi illustration, he draws upon various chapters and crevices of art history to provide the models for his haunting revisions. After digitally manipulating the original figures, details, colors and compositions, he delicately paints: representing thick brushstrokes with a smooth finish as he turns the icons of this tradition into the agents of dark theatre. In concert with shadowy etchings that overlay multiple models and bronze sculptures caked with oil paint, Brown congregates a rich multitude of media, references, styles and titles to evoke a splendid, if unsettling air of déjà vu. By reaching back into the pictorial traditions of art to conjure grotesque, yet seductive ghosts Brown, in turn, plots a compelling course for both the undying and evolving future of painting.

 

Glenn Brown is organized by the Des Moines Art Center and curated by Jeff Fleming.

This exhibition is generously supported by Harvey C. Hubbell Trust, Alex and Jason McCaw, Sue Friedlander, Kate and Bill Baumann with ArtsWave Corporate Partner: P&G

Artworks