JOHN BROWN

May 13 – June 18, 2011

Vernissage: Friday, May 13th from 19h (7pm)

Artist page
Press release as pdf
German version

WILDE Gallery Berlin is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new paintings by John Brown. This occasion marks Brown's first solo show in Europe. A catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

Known in his native Toronto as a "painters' painter," John Brown has achieved national attention and critical acclaim for his dense compositions and visceral imagery since he began exhibiting in the early 1980's. Brown's paintings have been described as "survivors of their own making." His process is immensely labour-intensive: a single work can take years to complete. The solitary act of applying paint, building imagery and then aggressively reducing the piece back down to its core, only to begin again, encapsulates this repetitive pattern of sublime creation and violent destruction.

In the catalogue for his solo show at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), curator David Liss writes, "Nearly as often as he uses a paintbrush he uses knives and scrapers to wrest essence from the very fibres of his pigments and supports. Each tableau is born into the world through vigorous physical exertion and cerebral contemplation."

Brown begins with a vast lexicon of imagery and material compiled from sources such as antiquated medical journals, newspapers, excerpts from Henri Michaud's mescaline diaries and stock photographs of plane crashes. His painterly language is, at times, dark, austere and yet never despairing. Rather, these images attest to a more spiritual understanding of the act of creation.

Said to awaken "latent memories," Brown's paintings approach the human psyche from a shared plateau of collective experience. His paintings are not only seen, they are felt: emotionally and physically. The artist states that each painting, "inherently promises that there may actually be a future. Any act of creation is optimistic. Any act of creation is about hope."

John Brown was born in 1953 in Sarnia, Ontario. He studied at the Ontario College of Art and the University of Guelph. Major exhibitions include Monumenta at YYZ, Toronto Painting and Written Images, Art Gallery of Ontario (touring), and The Visceral THING, MOCCA. The artist lives and works in Toronto, Ontario.

For more information, please contact the gallery.

vernissage
Friday, May 13th from 19h (7pm)

exhibition
May 13 – June 18, 2011

opening hours
Wed – Sat | 12 – 18 h

location
WILDE GALLERY
Chausseestrasse 7
D-10115 Berlin
info@wilde-gallery.com
www.wilde-gallery.com