Jenny Brosinski

Jenny Brosinski’s large abstract paintings are fast and automatic. The compositions are dominated by barren, pastel-hued unprimed canvas, punctuated by the artist’s trademark scribbles. To create the works, Brosinski uses a range of materials including acrylic, charcoal, spray-paint, dirt, and olive oil; and she often puts her canvases through the washing machine or soaks them in the shower. Elements of text appear throughout, recalling snippets of a teenagers’ diary or the defaced door of a nightclub toilet cubicle. Abstraction, neo-expressionism and minimalism are all key influences, as well as cartoons, automatic writing and contemporary artists such as Rose Wiley and Sterling Ruby. Through layering and negative space, the works explore memory, truth - and the possibilities of painting itself.

Brosinski has a reductionist approach to her process. She starts by paring down the compositions to their most essential elements. Once she has established the painting’s foundation, she adds juxtaposing layers - usually just one or two small moments of contrast on the composition. In this sense, Brosinski uses a methodology to create her pieces, rather than a preconceived image or idea. Always testing the potential of the canvas, Brosinski’s contemporary abstract painting scopes the ‘essence’ of line, colour and gesture.