Philip Martin Gallery is delighted to present, “Rain Relics,” an online exhibition of new wall-mounted video works by Brian Bress. Los Angeles-based artist Brian Bress makes pieces that pull from painting, video and performance, how we make these mediums - and how we perceive them.
Brian Bress’s works have immediacy and mystery. Often brightly colored, visually complex and full of contrasts, his pieces suggest patterns and the generation of information. Looking at Bress’s videos unfold, we find ourselves marveling at how the human mind puts things together and - at the same time - how the human spirit responds to what it perceives and feels. In these videos, Bress creates with a light touch, using humor and warmth to make stunning compositions that point in telescoping complexity to the manner in which we live our lives today.
Brian Bress comes to video with, “the agenda of a painter.” In the construction of pictorial space and the construction of painting itself - an art form as old as humanity that came about long before our current world of memes, social media and artificial intelligence - Brian Bress finds a springboard from which to jump into the contemporary two-dimensional picture plane and how we inscribe meaning upon it. We live in a world of screens, be they in the art gallery, the museum or in our homes.
Brian Bress’s work takes on terms like space, color and line, shape and support, still life, portraiture and landscape to organize experience and subject matter. By making a video act like a painting (or a sculpture) Bress uses the physical terms of other mediums to investigate how interiority and communication function. Bress pulls apart the assumption that looking at pictures - or looking at screens - is a passive, one-sided relationship. The works in “Rain Relics, Crumb Puzzle” appear at first to be striking - but still - compositions of primary and secondary colors. Patterns and images are revealed as time elapses with a performer in costume - usually Bress himself - gradually appearing in the midst of the action, standing in a shallow set.
The conversation across the screen in Bress’s work is paramount. While the mechanics of the camera rationalize Bress’s actions two-dimensionally, the action in the studio is physical. It is the filmed movement of Bress’s own body that allows for a dialogue between sculpture and video. Bress’s single- and multi-channel videos address the ways in which we think about different forms of human expression. They unfold as soundless, digital loops in which isolated individuals perform in various forms of dress. These “animated paintings” are neatly presented and framed - the video a window through which we may peer into Bress’s world - and draw our own conclusions.
Brian Bress (b. 1975, Norfolk, VA) received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI) in 1998 and his MFA from the University of California (Los Angeles, CA) in 2006. In 2023, Brian Bress’ work was the subject of a major presentation at Art Basel Miami Beach Meridians Section. Bress’s work is currently the subject of “Message From Our Planet,” a multi-museum touring exhibition. Bress’s work was featured in the exhibition, “Pocket Universe” (Philip Martin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA). Other group and solo exhibitions include, “In Production” at the Yuz Museum, Shanghai, organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; “Brian Bress: Pictures Become You,” Akron Art Museum (Akron, OH); and “Paradox: The Body in the Age of AI,” Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA); “Idiom (Brian, Raffi, Britt),” Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, CA); “Interventions: Brian Bress,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Santa Barbara, CA); “In the Box: Brian Bress,” Chrysler Museum of Art (Norfolk, VA); “The Imperfect Tense (for Josef Albers),” Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, MD); “Screens: Virtual Material,” DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (Boston, MA); “Commercial Break,” Public Art Fund (New York, NY); “Brian Bress: Status Report,” New Museum (New York, NY); Museo d’arte contemporanea Roma (Rome, Italy); and “2016 Moving Image Biennial,” Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève (Geneva, Switzerland). His 2015-16 touring exhibition, “Brian Bress: Make Your Own Friends,” opened at Utah Museum of Fine Arts (Salt Lake City, UT) and traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (Denver, CO) and Orange County Museum of Art (Newport Beach, CA). His work is in the collections of Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation (Los Angeles, CA); Hammer Museum (Los Angeles, CA); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, CA); Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento, CA); Palm Springs Museum of Art (Palm Springs, CA); Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Santa Barbara, CA); San Diego Museum of Art (San Diego, CA); Museum of Contemporary Art (San Diego, CA); Portland Museum of Art (Portland, OR); Utah Museum of Fine Arts (Salt Lake City, UT); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, TX); Oklahoma State University Museum (Stillwater, OK); Akron Art Museum (Akron, OH); OZ Art Northwest Arkansas, (Bentonville, AR); Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago (Chicago, IL); Loyola University Museum of Art (Chicago, IL); Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, IL); Norton Museum of Art (West Palm Beach, FL); and Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY). Bress lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
“Brian Bress: Rain Relics,” is online July 12 - July 26, 2024.
Philip Martin Gallery is open Wednesday-Saturday 11-5 and Tuesdays by appointment. The gallery is located at 3342 Verdugo Road, Los Angeles CA 90065. For additional images and information please call 323-507-2037 or email info@philipmartingallery.com.
