Deborah Brown
The things that make us
“I think my paintings reflect a longing to live. I see them as an expression of who I am.”
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...
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.
Deborah Brown (she/her) was born in Pasadena, California in 1955. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Brown has been a visiting artist and lecturer at universities around the USA, and had tenureship at Carleton College.
After spending years mastering the history and craft of painting, Brown felt she had to let go of intellectual habits and paint intuitively.
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