Lauren Powell Presents:

~ Deborah Brown ~

Zeus Tribute on Paper

I am truly honored to be sharing a selection of intimate ink and brush on paper drawings by the inimitable OG Buswhick painter and art community builder, Deborah Brown. In the midst of Covid quarantine, Deborah lost her beloved sidekick Zeus, who has been immortalized and preserved forever within many of her paintings over the years. To help process the grief further, and devote a series solely to this precious creature, Deborah has preserved her Familiar in timeless, classic, and truly personal scenes captured through seemingly effortless brushstrokes of ink on paper. While many of her paintings begin within her imagination and explore her own personal truths, this series feels like it takes place in a new natural paradise where Deborah and Zeus are forever together in infinite exploration - a heaven of sorts. When companions feel more important than ever, these drawings are a reminder of the places we’ve been and the places we will continue to go - if only in our dreams.

And a personal side note that I will be forever grateful for Deborah’s ability to perfectly capture my kitty Fiona this summer, who also passed during the pandemic. Do not miss Fiona, along with portraits of many of Deb’s other friends, in her show Things As They Are, opening January 7th 2021 at the brilliant Anna Zorina Gallery in Chelsea. And her upcoming online show with Unit London on February 1st 2021.

Learn more about Deborah’s work here: http://deborahbrownfineart.com/ .

Deborah Brown’s recent paintings are self-portraits and portraits of friends, a body of work developed and executed during the Covid-19 pandemic that swept New York City where the artist lives and works. The work depicts the subjects in their surroundings in the company of their animal companions. Drawing on the rich history of portraiture in Western Art, the artist aims to represent the consciousness of the sitter and the phenomenological act of seeing that unfolds when the viewer meets the gaze of the subject portrayed in the painting. The work questions what it means to be human in an age of digital representation.

Deborah Brown received her BA summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University and an MFA from Indiana University. Brown has been a visiting artist and lecturer at Penn State University, Hunter College, Pace University, Columbia University, Maryland Institute College of Art, Yale University and Art Omi.

The artist's work has been exhibited in the United States and Europe including Gavlak, Palm Beach, FL; Anna Zorina Gallery, New York; Burning in Water, New York; The Lodge, Los Angeles; Nancy Littlejohn Fine Art, Houston, TX; Freight + Volume, New York; Underdonk, Brooklyn; Spoonbill Studio, Brooklyn; GEARY Contemporary, New York; Lesley Heller Gallery, New York; Mike Weiss Gallery, New York; BravinLee programs, New York; Galleri Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen, and Angell Gallery, Toronto. Brown's work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, Artillery Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Observer, ARTnews, Artnet, Juxtapoz Magazine, Galerie Magazine, Houston Chronicle, The Denver Post, Madame Figaro, Hyperallergic and ART-Das Kuntsmagazin. Brown's work is included in prestigious public collections, among them the Indianapolis Museum of Art, DeCordova Museum, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Malibu, Bass Museum of Art, Miami, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Orlando Museum of Art, Florida, The Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina.