Julian Brown
Courtesy of Smithson Gallery
Julian Brown is an artist who creates visual kaleidoscopes in an array of colourful patterns, grids and curves. His playful, folk art-inspired work draws upon his childhood visions with a poignant awareness of his Polish heritage and a particular love for the wonder of the paper cut-out craft of Wycinakni, introduced to him by his mother.
His adult self ponders, deliberates and considers this time. When he paints it is like a fleeting moment for the child to surface and the process of painting intuitively evolves, live and fluid. Brown indicates that this work is also about the relationship of colour and breaking down systems where he might teeter on the edge of success or failure. His work has a certain daring as he experiments and pushes boundaries. Much like the imaginations of a childhood game, the work has many possibilities and could lead to any number of endings.
"At the very core of every work I make is a negotiation between order and chaos. As paintings they can manifest themselves in different forms, often influenced by nostalgic visions of my childhood in the 1980s and the folk artefacts from my mother's Polish heritage. These elements have a handmade geometric quality that has a playful and primitive relevance to the world we now live in.
I try to explore these worlds with tactile images that sit somewhere between order and chaos, structure and collapse, expression and control. While the underpinning of the process is held together by predetermined structures, the freewheeling application is purposely engaging and ambivalent to the expressive urge to dictate the paintings.”
THE ART CAR BOOT FAIR GOES TO SPACE
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