About the Artist

Short Biography

Henry Brown is an abstract painter based in New York City. Brown constructs geometric images from compass-and-ruler underdrawings to form his perception-based abstractions. 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. He has curated large exhibitions, including a 38-artist show at Westbeth Gallery, New York City and a 24-artist show at Crush Curatorial, Amagansett, NY. www.henrybrown.com

A full biography is available on the Home page.

On the Grid, Off the Grid

Drawing Rooms
​Topps Building
​926 Newark Ave #T101
Jersey City, NJ
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.

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.

Beyond Black and White

Curated by Henry Brown and Li Trincere

Westbeth Gallery
55 Bethune St, New York, NY
January 6 - 27, 2018

Beyond Black and White was an exhibition of black and white based abstraction that goes past the limits of these two colors. Some of the painters create variations in different blacks and whites, paint using the grey tones that come in between. Others set additional color against black and white as a counterpoint in their palette. A number of the artists incorporate black and white as a physical component in their artwork. They go beyond black and white color using pigment as a concrete material. Beyond Black and White provided an opportunity to examine this important niche within contemporary abstraction.

The exhibiting artists were René Pierre Allain, Lisa Beck, Sharon Brant, Michael Brennan, Henry Brown, Jacob Cartwright, Vincent Como, Mark Dagley, Laura Duerwald, Cris Gianakos, Elizabeth Gregory-Gruen, Daniel Hill, Gilbert Hsiao, Heather Hutchison, James Hyde, Debra Jenks, Melissa Kretschmer, Robert Ludwig, Stephen Maine, Tom Martinelli, Gelah Penn, David Rhodes, Ivo Ringe, Michael Rouillard, Cordy Ryman, Steven Salzman, Karen Schifano, Michael Scott, David Seccombe, Li Trincere, Kim Uchiyama, Ken Wade, Dan Walsh, Mark Williams, Joan Witek, Douglas Witmer, Jean Wolff, Patricia Zarate

Westbeth Gallery is a nonprofit gallery that features the work of resident artists and independently curated exhibitions. The 2900 square foot gallery is located on the first floor of the Westbeth Artists’ Housing complex.

Territory

Curated by Henry Brown, Karen Hesse Flatow and Li Trincere

Crush Curatorial (now Hesse Flatow East)
Amagansett, The Hamptons, Long Island, NY
June, 2016

Territory has a double meaning. It refers to an area of knowledge or experience, the artists’ voice in their work, their territory. Territory also has a geographic reference to an area of land with regard to a particular type of activity or characteristic.

American Impressionists, Abstract Expressionists, and artists through the 1980s have migrated to Long Island’s East End for inspiration from the unique light, environment, and for studio space outside New York City. Artists continue to work and/or live here. A thriving art scene has grown and stakes its claim in the East End of Long Island. Territory focused on abstract artists in the 21st century. The exhibition was a cross section of abstraction being done by artists with ties to the East End of Long Island.

Artists showed work ranging from reductive abstraction and new geometry to allusive representation. Territory included art that deals with the concrete, and work that functions pictorially to create a break in space beyond the normal visual landscape. The exhibition embraced stylistic diversity and represented a variety of directions in current abstraction.

The participating artists were Eric Brown, Henry Brown, Amanda Church, Don Christensen, Peter Dayton, Gabriele Evertz, Karen Hesse Flatow, Janet Goleas, Erik Gonzalez, Christian Haub, Charlotte Hallberg, Gregory Johnston, Bill Komoski, Lauren Luloff, Rory MacArthur, Chuck Manion, Lola Montes, Drew Shiflett, Christine Sciulli, Taro Suzuki, Li Trincere, Ryan Wallace, Tad Wiley, Almond Zigmund

Short Curatorial Bio

Henry Brown is an abstract painter based in New York City. He has curated large exhibitions, including a 38-artist show at Westbeth Gallery, New York, NY (2018) and a 24-artist show at Crush Curatorial (now Hesse Flatow East), Amagansett, NY (2016). They have been reviewed in ArtNews, Hamptons magazine, The East Hampton Star and Hamptons Art Hub. Brown was a juror for Apexart’s NYC Exhibition Program 2026-27 and International Exhibition Program 2025-26.

Links

See the Links page for a selection of websites related to Henry Brown’s work including previous artist residencies.