Deborah Brown

When the Covid-19 pandemic started in spring 2020, Deborah Brown was already in the midst of a new challenge: self-portraits. She had been asked by fellow artist Patty Horing to collaborate on the exhibition Sit Still: Self-Portraits in the Age of Distraction. Brown began her self-portraiture journey painting herself how she had painted others in the past – often with pets, nudity and bodies of water. As her practice evolved, the physical self has vanished completely. For Brown, still life is less about the object itself, but rather a form of psychoanalysis – capturing the tangible things that represent her soul.

Absence has become the central theme in Brown’s painting. As the world opened up again post-lockdown, she ventured out on walks with her dog – documenting the streets of her Brooklyn neighbourhood. The resulting paintings that make up both the Shadow Paintings (2021-2022) and Haunted House series (2022). Though rendered in vivid colour, the paintings have a post-apocalyptic feel. Brown and her dog explore a world devoid of human life but filled with the remnants of our existence. Who we are is also what we leave behind.