Artist of the Month 

December 2008 Artist:
Deborah Brown

Image Bridge Traffic, 2007, oil on canvas, 48x60 in

Deborah Brown juxtaposes images drawn from the natural world alongside constructs of modern culture in oil paintings and large-scale glass mosaics. Her most recent work is centered on the current technological conflicts present in the environment, describing the uncomfortable relationship between pastoral and urban landscapes. Her work denotes the rapid encroachment of urban development on animal habitats.

Brown is also well-known for her poignant series depicting New York City shelter dogs which represent the subjects in a portrait-like manner, often clinical and dispassionate, as she feels that an unemotional approach would allow for unexpected emotions to be expressed.

Image Peace Through Understanding, 2007, oil on canvas, 23x58 in

Public art is another prominent aspect of Brown’s work; she has turned many of her paintings into mosaics for permanent installation in public spaces. Selected commissioned projects include the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s Houston Street Subway Station in Manhattan, and the outdoor artwork for the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit System in Jersey City for New Jersey Transit. Brown is currently designing public artwork for an animal shelter and veterinary clinic in Memphis, Tennessee.

Brown is a graduate of Yale University (BA) and Indiana University (MFA), and has exhibited widely in the United States, in both solo and group exhibitions, including ArtHaus in San Francisco, CA, the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C., Lesley Heller Gallery, New York, and the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, NC. Her work is included in numerous museum and private collections.

Image Landing, 2008, oil on canvas, 40x60 in

Artist Statement

I am interested in nature and culture, in how we interact with the natural world and view it through the lens of our culture. I have painted pastoral and urban landscapes of New England, California, and New York City.

I see myself in the tradition of American landscape painting. My work references Frederic Remington and Winslow Homer in particular. From my contemporary vantage point, I like using the vocabulary of late 19th and early 20th century painting—with its flat, sensuous paint application—to tell a disturbing story.

Image Turtles Ride For Free, 1994, Houston Street Subway Station, New York, glass mosaic mural, 39x130 in

My most recent work depicts ambiguous or disturbing encounters between animals and humans that result from the collision of the natural world with our technological conquest of it. In my paintings, contemporary events provide the tableau for specific animal encounters that I imagine. I get my ideas from firsthand experience and the media. I collect images of ecological subjects from newspapers, books, and magazines, and place then in contexts that I think are provocative, poignant and ambiguous.

Image Howl, 2008, oil on canvas, 48x60 in

Written by Cristie Scott, BRIC Rotunda Gallery Intern, with Marcia McHam
Artist selected by Marcia McHam and Narcissa Titman, BRIC Rotunda Gallery Friends Committee Members