About the Artist
Paintings
Henry Brown’s paintings are mechanically drawn geometric abstractions. He forms his imagery from structural schematics constructed with compass and ruler. The schematics are developed from small sketches and then drawn directly on the gessoed canvases. Henry Brown paints the images, but leaves the underdrawings visible to show the substructure, planning and execution of his artwork.
The artist uses mechanical drafting techniques and paints with flat unmodulated color. Yet Henry Brown retains a handmade quality in his artwork, seen in the knifed finish of the gessoed layers, variations in pencil lines and eccentricities of the painted edges.
His imagery appears to be fixed spatially, but visual perception triggers sensations of movement. Depth shifts as surfaces advance and recede. Henry Brown animates the surfaces of his abstract paintings with systems of perspective, dynamic structures, and changing figure-ground relationships.
MIC: CHECK (occupy)
January 7 – February 28, 2012
Sideshow Gallery
319 Bedford Ave
Brooklyn, NY
718-486-8180
sideshowgallery.com
Henry Brown is exhibiting in Sideshow Gallery’s 12th Annual extravaganza – MIC: CHECK (occupy). This masterful orchestration of hundreds of artworks never fails to astonish.
Henry Brown, Resound 2009 (center of image)
ABSTRACTION∞
November 3 – 27, 2011
The Icebox and Grey Area at Crane Arts
1400 N. American Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122
Curated by Janet Kurnatowski
ABSTRACTION∞ (Abstraction to the Power of Infinity) celebrated the perseverance of non-figurative and non-objective art, including the practitioners, pioneers and those working in the traditions of abstraction. This exhibition showed the recent work of 76 members of the American Abstract Artists (AAA), along with four guest exhibitors. The works exhibited spaned a variety of media including painting, sculpture, photography, installation, video, and digital computer art; vividly communicating with color, line, form and texture.
As one of the few artists’ organizations born of the Great Depression, AAA was a pivotal force in the development and acceptance of abstract art in the US. The group’s continued vitality after 75 years is a testament to the power and reach of these non-objective art forms and points to an infinite future for abstraction…This exhibition was also a tribute to Will Barnet, an esteemed member of the AAA since 1954 and also the AAA’s first centenarian.
The artists included in the exhibition were:
Alice Adams, Steven Alexander*, Eve Aschheim, Martin Ball, Will Barnet, Dennis Beach*, Siri Berg, Emily Berger, Power Boothe, Susan Bonfils, Sharon Brant, Henry Brown, Marvin Brown, Kenneth Bushnell, James O. Clark, Mark Dagley, Matthew Deleget, Tom Doyle, Tom Evans, Gabriele Evertz, Kevin Finklea*, Heidi Glück, Vito Giacalone, John Goodyear, Gail Gregg, James Gross, Lynne Harlow, Mara Held, Daniel G. Hill, Charles Hinman, Gilbert Hsiao, Phillis Ideal, Julian Jackson, Roger Jorgensen, James Juszczyk, Cecily Kahn, Steve Karlik, Marthe Keller, Victor Kord, Irene Lawrence, Mon Levinson, James Little, Jane Logemann, Vincent Longo, Katinka Mann, Nancy Manter, Stephen Maine, Rossana Martinez, David MacKenzie, Creighton Michael, Manfred Mohr, Judith Murray, Sharyn O’Mara*, John Phillips, Corey Postiglione, Joan Webster Price, Raquel Rabinovich, Leo Rabkin, Ce Roser, Irene Rousseau, David Row, James Seawright, Edward Shalala, Babe Shapiro, Louis Silverstein, Robert Storr, Peter Stroud, Robert Swain, Richard Timperio, Clover Vail, Vera Vasek, Don Voisine, Merrill Wagner, Joan Waltemath, Stephen Westfall, Mark Williams, Jeanne Wilkinson, Thornton Willis, Kes Zapkus, Nola Zirin
*Guest exhibitor
Exhibition curator Janet Kurnatowski is the owner and director of Janet Kurnatowski Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. Since opening its doors in 2004, the gallery has maintained a strong focus on showing abstract art from emerging talent as well as mid-career and established artists. Special thanks to The Golden Rule Foundation for making this exhibition possible.
The Crane Company Building was built in 1905 out of cast concrete faced with brick. It was originally used as a plumbing warehouse and later to process frozen seafood. The enormous concrete block, first floor addition functioned as a walk-in freezer. It now serves as the Icebox Project Space. The Icebox is 5,000 square feet—50' W x 100' L x 24' HT. The Grey Area at Crane Arts is a cave-like space with smoky gray walls.
Recent Exhibits and Residencies
News About Henry Brown: recent exhibitions include American Abstract Artists 75th Anniversary at OK Harris in NYC; The Big Show 6 at Silas Marder Gallery in Bridgehampton, Long Island, NY; American Abstract Artists / 75th Anniversary at Galerie oqbo and Deutscher Künstlerbund in Berlin, Germany; and “L’astrazione vista da un cosmopolita” at the Aragonese Castle of Otranto in Italy. He was also awarded a residency at Yaddo for 2011.