Beastly Words explores the fundamental flaw of language as an expression of our deepest selves, and the contradictions of language as image. Pained, repetitive words and phrases are subdued and channeled into new forms, given life as watery zebras, muscular tigers, an anthropomorphized WWII fighter plane, and breathless track runners.

Brown first creates film negatives from mysterious scrawlings recovered from a university library trash can—the aching and robotic exercises of an unknown author. Brown’s subsequent use of older photographic techniques to recontextualize the images, through Cyanotype and Van Dyke processes, naturally limits his palette to a calming range of organic browns and blues, fading or deepening depending on exposure to light. He imposes a more natural and visceral world on the underlying fumbling language, as well as foiling the hyper-Photoshopped slickness of our mass-media world.

“Boys will be boys”— or so the saying goes. In Bradly Brown’s first exhibit at Road Agent, he offers theatrical photographs that toy with questions of how young men construct their identities as they gradually mature into adulthood. In several of Brown’s photographs the artist and his friends playact with plastic animal masks hiding their faces. An Arcadian narrative unfolds, juxtsposing homoerotic yearnings with a suggestive menance. The most striking photo of the show, however, extends beyond a beautifully rendered, but simply conceived drama. Dominated by rich orange hues, a fractured and deteriorating wall opens into a small room that houses a solitary schoolboy, hands tied to a chair. This luxuriously colored photograph and the threatening mystery it encapsulates is as viscerally enticing as it is emotionally unsettling.

—Flash Art Magazine, Matthew Bourbon

Fairytale of  New York
2008
paint, thread, marker, ink
48″ x 36″

Donkey Punch
2008
mixed media on chalk board
48″ x 72″

Sometimes you only have two options, to sink or to swim.

Scanned objects, 2006

15,540 Miles is an examination of distance and movement over time.The walls were tiled with cyanotype yearbook portraits of classmates printed on carpet. The portraits were hung blank, but as time passed, ghost like images appeared as the photo emulsion was exposed. Two desks in the middle of the space reflect one of two paths. The pencil desk creates an anxious mood, always going and moving – never sitting. The desk next to it seems more inviting though sitting down on the pilling saw dust quickly weighs you down making it hard to get up and move again.

While the portraits on the wall slowly expose, the pencils and other elements of the installation trap the viewer. On the back wall of the gallery hangs a green chalkboard with a map of the world. On the map, a line measures a distance of 15,540 miles, the length of  the line that can be draw with 444 pencils, the amount embedded in the desk.

Sometimes things don’t go exactly as planned. Sometimes discoveries are made when plans fail.
Originally this was to be the first in a series of prints made from rusting metal.  Rust, or iron oxides, is an electro-chemical reaction between iron and oxygen. Given time, oxygen, and water, any iron mass eventually converts entirely to rust and disintegrates. However, the corrosion of aluminum is extremely slow because the resulting aluminum oxide forms a conformal coating, which protects the remaining aluminum. This process is known as passivation.  The metal sheets that were used for this project were aluminum, so unfortunately, they will never rust. However, the water formed differently on the bare metal as it did on the “coated” metal.  Although I got unexpected results, a whole new image process was discovered.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Open Space Alliance For North Brooklyn in Partnership with Trust Art Proudly Presents:

BRAVE BROOKLYN: Art Exhibit & Silent Auction

BROOKLYN, NY (November 2009)—Brave Brooklyn, presented by the Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn (OSA) and curated in partnership with Trust Art, Outside the Time Zone and the Shiny Squirrel draws from the pioneering spark of artists who first moved to Northern Brooklyn over thirty years ago. The exhibition is inspired by the community’s artistic spirit, a vibrant and contemporary arts scene that continues to thrive and grow in Williamsburg and Greenpoint.

The artists featured in the exhibit utilize a range of visual and mixed media, and hail from across the country and the world, finding their homes in Brooklyn. This event provides a platform for them to share their work in an effort to cultivate community interaction and dialogue.

Julia Morrow, the Assistant Director of OSA, directs attention to the ongoing potential of such an artistic environment: “The neighborhood’s talent and willingness to share its creativity in public space not only improves our neighborhood aesthetically, but can potentially raise funds for future park initiatives that require our support and attention.”

Among the twenty-eight pieces of artwork that will be exhibited and included in the silent auction to benefit OSA is that of preeminent sculptor, Richard Serra and mixed medium artist, Fred Tomaselli. Other participating artists include: Bradly Brown, James Case Leal, Ryan Goolsby, Weston Woolly, Emily Goode, Suzanne Zwicky, Gidalya Tashman, Karl Metz, Adam Taye, Chris Burnside, James Woodward, Robbert Jan de Oude, Sam Martineau, Lizzy Wezler, Matt Jones, Jacqueline Schmidt, Jesse Witkin, Kris Graves, Nathan Koch, Karen Bausman, Molly Surno, Skewville, Anne McClain, Dave Olsen, Facundo Newbery and Cassie Thornton.

Brave Brooklyn will be open to the public for an opening reception December 4^th at 6pm. Viewing hours will be Saturday – Sunday, 12-5pm, Monday - Friday 4-7pm. The gallery is located at 30 Nassau Avenue at Dobbin Street in Williamsburg. There will be closing reception held on Dec 11^th at 6pm and bids can be made at bravebrooklyn.com after November 20^th, 2009 or at both the opening and closing receptions.

For information about the exhibition and artist bios, visit www.bravebrooklyn.com.

Media inquiries and accreditation for the press preview, contact Julia Morrow at Julia@openspacealliancenb.org.

The Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn is a not-for-profit that works with the community to further the restoration and preservation of existing parks as well as the development of new parks and cultural programs in North Brooklyn. www.openspacealliancenb.org

Trust Art is a social platform that invites people and communities to participate in the realization of ambitious and inspirational public works of art. www.trustart.org

These days everyone is out looking for work. It always a good idea to have business cards on hand. In an attempt to explore these little Hand-Shakes-On-Card-Stock I’m making a new sheet of DIY cards every day this week.  We’ll be in touch.

We can find out a lot about a person by looking at the things that surround them.  The objects we posses help to define and categorize us.  Individually the logo or brand represents the product but grouped together they create the identity of the individual.

This morning I took photos of all the logos I could find around the house. In total I got about 250.
I used MacOSaix to create the mosaic. What can I say, I’ve always been a sucker for a good photo mosaic.

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