Brooks’ work never stagnant, stuffy, unapproachable or devoid of humor. Credit: Courtesy Image / Bryson Brooks
FL!GHT Gallery will present “BEST WESTERN,” a solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Bryson Brooks that opens this Thursday.
A Texas native but peripatetic by nature, Brooks currently divides his time between San Antonio and upstate New York, with past stints in Mexico and Serbia. Each locale drew out different aspects of expression from this idiosyncratic polymath.
In turn, his artistic output is alternately playful, academic and absurd. Imagine a whip-smart former club kid who loves to rap about booty and ruminate on the quixotic landscapes of Thomas Cole, and you might begin to get the picture.
Brooks studied with groundbreaking feminist performance artist Linda Mary Montano at UT Austin before eventually making his way to San Antonio, where he worked as an assistant to painter Franco Mondini-Ruiz, among other artists. His first experiments with Western paintings are based on crops of the great Richard Prince’s “Cowboy Series.”
Likewise, much of Brooks’ early large-scale landscape paintings are based on photographs that alternate between dreamlike vistas of upstate New York and Big Sky Country, paying homage to the two places he calls home. Manipulation of light and bold colors applied with an oddly impressionistic touch are part of his current paradoxical signature, which continues to evolve as quickly as the artist’s brain can process and reprocess his lexicon of influences.
One consistent aspect of Brooks’ work is, like the artist himself, never stagnant, stuffy, unapproachable or devoid of humor.
Notable accomplishments include solo exhibitions and group inclusions at An Arte Gallery (San Antonio), New Images Art (Los Angeles), Worrell Gallery (Santa Fe) and La Panederia (Mexico City), as well as two large-scale landscape paintings Dawn and Dusk, commissioned for the permanent collection of Texas A&M University-San Antonio.
Free, Opening reception 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, and by appointment through Sunday, Dec. 28, FL!GHT Gallery, 112R Blue Star, (210) -872-2586, facebook.com/flightSA.
Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
Related Stories
The free workshop will take place this Saturday.
The free gathering will feature an array of film, dance, performance and installation art along with live music, poetry and more.
San Antonio’s fall arts calendar is as diverse and fascinating as the scene that makes it tick.