Alex Brown: Common Scents 10 October – 21 November 2012 > past    > artist page

Alex Brown’s work is playfully difficult to pin down. From a distance it appears representational yet as one approaches the image, it falls apart into abstraction. As one steps away, like an animation, the abstraction reconfigures back into representation. The edges of the repeated modular shapes that compose the abstraction are hard edge with centers like some candies, gushy or gelatinous. The representational aspect of the work references the photography of the found printed source material, and the abstraction references mathematics or the computer, though neither technology is utilized. Sometimes science pops into that discussion as the repeated modular form begs to be understood as molecular structure. There are of course other ways to enter this work, color and history probably being the most obvious, or in this body of work in particular, light. My main concern however, is that we go for the multiple reads and enjoy the 200% that the artist builds into them.

Alex Brown was born in Des Moines in 1966, lives there now, and took a BFA from Parsons School of Design in 1991. He began exhibiting with Feature Inc. in 1988 and this is his 6th solo exhibition with the gallery.

  Alex Brown, Julia, 2012 Alex Brown, Flower, 2012 Alex Brown, Untitled, 2011 Alex Brown, Untitled, 2011 Josh Podoll, Pitched Against The Sky, 2012 Alex Brown, Untitled, 2011 Alex Brown, Storm, 2012 Alex Brown, Untitled, 2012 Alex Brown, Untitled, 2012 Alex Brown, Boat, 2012 Alex Brown, Concert for Hate and War, 2012 Alex Brown, Untitled, 2012 Alex Brown, Untitled, 2012 Alex Brown, Bloom, 2012; Alex Brown, Untitled, 2012 Alex Brown, Untitled, 2012
space space Julia, 2012; oil paint on canvas; 50.5 x 48.5”; $ 25,000 Flower, 2012; oil paint on canvas; 38 x 35”; 18,000 Untitled, 2011; ink on paper; 23.5 x 17.75”; $ 6,000 Untitled, 2011; ink on paper; 23.75 x 17.75”; $ 6,000 framed Untitled, 2011; watercolor on paper; 10 x 13.5”; $ 4,500 framed> Untitled, 2011; watercolor on paper; 10 x 14”; $ 4,500 framed Storm, 2012; oil paint on canvas; 55.5 x 60.5”; 30,000 Untitled, 2012; watercolor on paper; 16.25 x 12.25”; $ 5,000 framed Untitled, 2012; watercolor on paper; 14.25 x 10.25”; $ 4,500 framed Boat, 2012; oil paint on canvas; 47.5 x 50.5”; $ 25,000 Concert for Hate and War, 2012; oil paint on canvas; 62.5 x 60.5”; 30,000 Untitled, 2012; watercolor on paper; 12.25 x 16”; $ 5,000 framed Untitled, 2012; watercolor on paper; 14.25 x 10.25”; $ 4,500 framed   Bloom, 2012; oil paint on canvas; 29 x 28”; $ 18,000 Untitled, 2012; watercolor on paper; 12 x 12”; $ 4,500. framed Untitled, 2012; watercolor on paper; 12.25 x 16”; $ 5,000 framed
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