a solo exhibition of work by Gerard Brown

January 9 – March 3, 2023

Exhibition Reception Wednesday, January 18th, 12:20 – 1:10pm

Artist workshop Friday, January 20th, 12:20 – 1:10pm, Room 136 Woodland

 

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:

‘Know the Enemy’ gathers work by gerard brown from the last twelve years. One theme in the exhibit is how reading and writing can mediate between diverse identities and states of mind. As an artist, brown has used his painting as an opportunity to meditate on ideas that emerge from his reading by transcribing passages from artists and authors that inspire deeper contemplation. To slow the act of reading, he encodes these texts, which requires a letter-by-letter engagement with his sources. The resulting paintings celebrate literature’s capacity to help readers overcome isolation (as with a passage by James Baldwin) or explore the way politicians (such as Richard Nixon and members of the Trump administration) have weaponized language to polarize our nation. In this exhibit, drawings and needlework imagine the act of learning to communicate with non-human readers. Taken as a whole, the exhibit offers a chance to reflect on our collective involvement in language.

 

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

gerard brown is an educator and painter. Although he earned his BFA from Boston University and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he still cannot account for the powerful effect paintings have had on him since he was a teenager cutting classes to wander around the Hirschhorn and National Gallery. He paints passages of writing that fascinate and confuse him, using codes and ciphers and laborious techniques that allow for reflection and meditation. Occasionally, the messages of these writings compel him to use other techniques and to collaborate with other artists. In failed efforts to better understand his interests, brown has written criticism (for the Philadelphia Weekly, Juxtapoz, Ceramics art and Perception, and others) and organized exhibits (for the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Galleries at Moore College of Art & Design, the Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia, and others). He has had the privilege of teaching at Art Center College of Design, The University of the Arts, and the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, where he currently serves as an Associate Professor.

 

JANUARY 20th WORKSHOP: ‘How to hide anything’

What does the number on that guy’s tattoo mean? What is up with those sneakers? Does that haircut mean something? Taking William H. Sherman’s 2010 essay on cryptanalyst William f. Friedman as a starting point, this workshop will briefly explore ways that messages can be generated using codes and ciphers, with special attention to the connections between contemporary social media and historical examples. From examples of how hate groups secretly signal one another to how incarcerated persons communicated from solitary confinement, we’ll investigate the messages that are all around us – many invisible unless you know how to look for them – and generate a few messages ourselves.