Greg Brown
Comfort Creatures
May 20 - June 19, 2021
Shelter is pleased to present Comfort Creatures, an exhibition of paintings by Greg Brown.
“In high school science class, Mr. Simonian told us that monkeys masturbate when scared and confronting danger. Chickens dance and peck at the ground. Displacement behavior, it's called. Humans too do strange things when overloaded with stress, fear, and end-of-the-world worries. I didn't hoard toilet paper last year, but I did stock up on beans and pasta. And somehow, I painted a lot. A lot of hybrid, ‘comfort creatures.’”
Displacement behavior often consists of comfort movements, such as grooming, scratching, self-directed nervous arousal. Brown’s creature paintings are not displacement behavior so much as displacement expression; with the artist’s work, although it is self-directed to initiate and carry through, the outcome is ultimately to be shared. The resulting crude, cartoony creatures are both goofy and absurd, reflecting a part of the artist, both personal and in his creative process.
Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky creature is supposed to be scary, and a lot of strange behavior goes on in Alice in Wonderland - but not displacement behavior; perhaps Carroll's absurdity is some kind of displacement expression too. It seems to fit Mina Zarfsaz's assertion that "Absurdity in art shows an inverted and contradictory version of reality that juxtaposes multiple realities in order to invite people to look at life differently."(1) In his Jabberwocky poem, Carroll hybridizes words and invents new ones (like "galumphing" and "chortle"); in his paintings, Brown hybridizes creatures to portray wonder. Like an uninhibited child, there is a sense of wonder in basic discovery. Paintings are not planned with drawings, but instead follow the artist’s imagination and wield a variety of techniques. Spontaneous scrawls and material application become creature forms interacting with themselves, or coupling with others. The work reveals struggle, frivolity, humor, and hints of eroticism for the viewer to consider. Without a doubt, Brown’s paintings are an exuberant affirmation of life: “Majestic goofiness" they have been deemed by the artist’s friend, a goofiness that elicits pleasure not gloom.
Greg Brown is the middle child with ten brothers and sisters, son of a psychiatrist and a conservative religious mother. He grew up with Babar the Elephant, Dr. Seuss, R. Crumb, and Rene Magritte. He saw Mark Rothko, Philip Guston, and Robert Rauschenberg retrospectives after graduating USC Cinema, and decided to be an artist. Animation and film editing he merged into painting skills, working as a set painter and scenic artist in Hollywood studios for several years. He volunteered at the Los Angeles Braille Center and began collaging tactile and sensual material into his painting. Group shows in LA included Rosamund Felsen and LACE. Brown moved to Brooklyn, showed at White Columns, and helped establish a video and digital media lab at Skowhegan. More recently Brown has shown at the Yard in Manhattan and participated in the 2020 NYC Spring/Break show – both as a curator and exhibitor. Brown lives and paints in Connecticut, closely supervised by his four canine creatures.
(1) "On Humor And Absurdity In Arts" By Mina Zarfsaz, sciencecenter.org/blog/on-humor-and-absurdity-in-arts, May 09, 2018.
Something About Nothing, 2021, Mixed media on canvas, 48x60 in.
Brown’s work straddles a line between minimal and maximal; in works such as Something About Nothing (above), brushstrokes, line work, and a single collaged eye create a surprising tension despite the simple style.
On the other hand, works like Flibbertigibet (below) see the artist bringing in more collage material, this time containing patterns, creating a play between commercially produced elements and the artist’s hand. Using tile adhesive also allows Brown to build up a surface that is imperfect, heightening the surreality of the creatures he creates and leading the viewer’s eye through these denser works.
While Brown’s work contains unabashed whimsy and what can be perceived as silliness, there is also a thread of reference and personal experience present in each piece. Jacob’s Other Ladder (above) shows a group of simply-rendered bees processing down a flame trail from the skies toward the ground - the title alludes to the biblical ladder connecting heaven and earth. However, under the surface layer is a direct reference to the works and process of artist Cy Twombly. The collaged names "Homer", "Virgil", etc. are cut out of Twombly painting and drawing images (titled "Venus", "Apollo and the Artist", "Five Greek Poets and a Philosopher"); their use is mostly to reference Twombly's art more than the people themselves. To add a personal connection, Brown also cut out portions of Twombly letters to create additional names not in any Twombly art - "Saltz" and "Bobo" (the artist’s stuffed elephant when he was 5).
This art historical reference is also present in another work of Brown’s Resting by Seahorse Pond with Chagall’s Nice Goat, in which actual imagery from Chagall’s famous work I and the Village is used amongst creatures real and imagined.
Resting by Seahorse Pond with Chagall’s Nice Goat, 2021, Mixed media on canvas, 48x60 in.
Voyager, 2021, Acrylic on canvas, 60x48 in.
Jabberwocky
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Messenger, 2020, Mixed media on canvas, 48x60 in.
Elle and I, 2021, Mixed media on canvas, 48x60 in.
Bad Bee and Drunken Reindeer 2, 2020, Mixed media on canvas, 48x60 in.
Flattery, 2020, Mixed media on canvas, 48x60 in.
Smaller Works
On view by request
Untitled Things, 2020, Mixed media on canvas with faux fur edge, 18x24 in.
Faux fur is a common element in Brown’s process; previous pieces entailed shaving lines out of this material on a larger scale. These shaved fur works were initially thought of and approached as big drawings - but drawing in reverse. By removing and erasing the medium the artist is able to reveal texture, color, and defining form; Rauschenberg’s famously erased de Kooning drawing is an inspiration.
In these smaller works, the fur around the edges actually functions as frames - though in this case, perhaps they can be thought of as “comfort” frames.
Bad Bee and Drunken Reindeer 1, 2020, Mixed media on canvas with faux fur edge, 18x24 in.
Life After Fifty, 2020, Mixed media on canvas with faux fur edge, 24x30 in.
Another element of these smaller works is how Brown handles the artist’s signature. On the front of some of these pieces the viewer can learn specifics of title, materials used, year produced, and dimensions, in effect creating an artwork label that is inseparable from the work itself. Referencing Duchamp, who once said an artwork’s title is like an invisible color, Brown uses this label as part of his visual vocabulary, while also satirizing the obsession with artwork labels in museums and galleries, particularly when people spend more time looking at wall text than at the work of art in front of them.
With an imperfect hand, Brown uses processes like erasing and obscuring the text to bring attention to it while also making it a part of the cohesive whole.
Sloths and Slugs, 2020, Mixed media on canvas with faux fur edges, 24x30 in.
The Bishop and the Ugly Poets, 2020, Mixed media on canvas with faux fur edges, 24x30 in.