About the Artist

Short Bio

Henry Brown is an abstract painter based in New York City. His geometric images, constructed from compass-and-ruler underdrawings, activate perception through changing spatial relationships. 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

Geometric Abstract Paintings

Henry Brown works with a stripped-down vocabulary of geometry and flat uniform color in his abstract paintings. Close inspection of Brown’s surfaces reveals a network of ruled lines and compass-drawn circles that form the underlying structure of his hard-edge images. He reinterprets the stable language of geometry to make paintings that shift between literal and pictorial space. Brown’s reductive aesthetic intensifies what is essential to his painting process, resulting in abstractions that are direct and conceptually driven.

Short texts on Henry Brown’s paintings discuss his process and approach in greater detail.

Curatorial

Henry Brown has curated several exhibitions of contemporary abstract art. Beyond Black and White was an exhibition of black and white based work that went past the limits of these two colors. It was held at Westbeth Gallery in Greenwich Village, New York City. Territory included abstract artists with ties to the East End of Long Island. It took place at Crush Curatorial (now Hesse Flatow East), Amagansett, in the Hamptons on Long Island, NY. Both large-scale exhibitions brought together an extensive group of artists exploring abstraction in distinct ways.

Links

Organizations and publications that have supported Henry Brown’s work include art-writing platforms, artist residencies, nonprofit exhibition spaces, and Art in Embassies of the U.S. Department of State. These websites provide further context surrounding his artwork.