Greg Brown

Greg Brown, born in Reno, Nevada, is the middle child with ten brothers and sisters, and son of a psychiatrist and a conservative religious mother. He grew up with Babar the Elephant, Dr. Seuss, R. Crumb, and Rene Magritte. He received a BA with a focus on animation and film editing from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema, earned a BFA from Pasadena Art Center, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. He saw Mark Rothko, Philip Guston, and Robert Rauschenberg retrospectives after graduating from USC , and decided to be an artist. Brown merged his experience with animation and film editing into painting skills. He worked as a set painter and scenic artist in Hollywood studios for several years. When working as a scenic artist and set painter at ABC-TV studios in Hollywood, he painted sets and backdrops for sitcoms and award shows, like the Grammys, American Music Awards, and Muppet Specials.

Brown's large-scale abstract renderings utilize a subtractive method by removing the ground material of faux fur. The works are formed by shaving geometric, minimal lines and shapes and by adding materials such as acrylic paint and tile adhesive compound to stretched fake fur. Brown introduced faux fur into his painting while he worked as a scenic artist and set painter in Hollywood, California.  There he had access to different types of decorative materials, which allowed him to satirize the kitsch in fine art making. Around the same time he was volunteering at the Braille Institute in Los Angeles and became interested in making art that appealed to other senses like touch and even taste. Greg Brown states, “Although my art is not edible, its visual and material aspects might stimulate a viewer in multi-sensory ways.” 

Greg Brown has exhibited in exhibitions in California and New York, including shows at Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Los Angeles; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE); Flow Ace Gallery, Santa Monica; and Paula Allen Gallery. He volunteered at the Los Angeles Braille Center and began collaging tactile and sensual material into his painting. In 1993 he moved to Brooklyn where he showed at White Columns, and helped establish a video and digital media lab at Skowhegan. More recently Brown had a solo at the Yard in Manhattan and participated in the 2020 NYC Spring/Break show – both as a curator and exhibitor. In the Spring of 2021 he has a solo show at the Shelter Gallery in Lower Manhattan.

Website: www.gregoryjosephbrown.com

Exhibitions

April 23 - May 21, 2020
Visual Rhythms 

July 11 - 31, 2019
The Small Works Show

July 26 - August 16, 2018
Small Works Show: A Group Exhibition

May 3 - 24, 2018
Illusive Presence