About the Artist
Short Biography
Henry Brown is an abstract painter based in New York City. He constructs geometric images from compass-and-ruler underdrawings that activate perception. Henry Brown’s artwork has been exhibited at MoMA PS1, Queens, NY; Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA; and Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL. His awards include artist residencies at Yaddo (three times), MacDowell, and Millay Arts. www.henrybrown.com
Curatorial
Curated by Henry Brown and Li Trincere.
Exhibitions Curated by Henry Brown
Henry Brown has curated several large exhibitions, including a 38-artist show at Westbeth Gallery, New York City and a 24-artist show at Crush Curatorial (now Hesse Flatow East), Amagansett, in the Hamptons on Long Island, NY.
Notes on Painting
Brief Texts About Henry Brown’s Artwork
These include short texts on Henry Brown’s geometric abstraction, drawings, and layering in his artwork.
Art Writing
Painters on Paintings (PoP) published “Henry Brown on Piet Mondrian”, April 5, 2026. The essay discusses spatial interpretations of a Mondrian painting on display at the Museum of Modern Art. Painters on Paintings features artists writing about works of art from a practitioner’s perspective.
On the Grid, Off the Grid
Drawing Rooms
Topps Building, #T107
926 Newark Ave
Jersey City, NJ 07306
February 5 - March 1, 2026
Henry Brown participated in On the Grid, Off the Grid at the Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, NJ. The exhibit was curated by Anne Trauben.
The grid has been used in art history as a tool for creating accurate and proportional drawings during the Renaissance by Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Durer to help maintain a consistent viewpoint and accuracy when drawing from life, or when working on a larger scale. During Modernism, Mondrian used a grid as a fundamental structure for his abstract paintings and Malevich’s Suprematist art expressed pure geometric forms and a new, non-objective reality. Agnes Martin’s structured minimalist paintings incorporate drawn lines by hand using rulers and pencils which introduced subtle imperfections that she considered crucial to the work. Sol LeWitt used the grid as a starting point for his conceptual work, creating a system with pre-defined rules and letting the system generate the final artwork.
The grid is rich with associations and use for artists, and the concept of being On or Off the Grid may also relate to our current society which relies on our interconnected and ever-widening systems of communication and media prevalent today.
Works for this show may engage a literal system of the grid or a distortion or deconstruction of the grid, and may make reference to the cyber-connected universe we live in or to a departure from it. Or works might express ideas that go off in a different direction entirely from the specific way the artist works.
Drawing Rooms is operated by Victory Hall Inc. a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization producing exhibitions, programs and public art projects in the NJ/NY area since 2001.
acrylic, pencil, gesso on canvas
Mondriaanhuis
In 2024 Henry Brown had a print as part of a print portfolio accepted into the permanent collection at Mondriaanhuis in Amersfoort, Netherlands. Mondriaanhuis is the birthplace of Piet Mondrian and a museum. It hosts changing exhibitions, houses a collection of geometric abstract and another of constructive concrete art.
Links
Websites Related to Henry Brown’s Artwork
The websites include art publications, artist residencies, nonprofit exhibition spaces, and Art in Embassies of the U.S. Department of State.
American Abstract Artists: Digital Prints 2012 – 2019
This was a traveling exhibition of American Abstract Artists (AAA) 75th Anniversary Print Portfolio 2012 and a suite of Digital Monoprints produced in 2019. Henry Brown has work included in the AAA 2012 edition. The exhibit was organized by Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The 2012 edition was printed by Supreme Digital in Brooklyn, New York, and the 2019 by Still River Editions in Danbury. Connecticut. The Introduction to the American Abstract Artists 75th Anniversary Print Portfolio 2012 was written by Robert Storr.
Past venues for this traveling exhibition:
- Herron School of Art + Design
Marsh Gallery, Eskenazi Hall
Indiana University and Purdue University, Indianapolis, IN.
January 26 - March 11, 2022 - The Gallery at The Visual and Performing Arts Center
Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT
October 15 - December 6, 2021