Paul Brainard : News

Artist talk at Die Wunderkammer
4/11/2013

Artist Talk Tonight, 7-9p: “Artist Salon at The Lodge” Paul Brainard & Hayley McCulloch The Lodge Gallery, 131 Chrystie St., NYC (bt Delancey & Broome) Paul Brainard will discuss his influences, his process and the symbolism of recurring images in his work and Hayley McCulloch will discuss her fascination with cultural luminaries and the talismanic properties of art. This discussion is a programming component of the exhibition “Die Wunderkammer; Objects of Virtue” which runs thru May 1st.

Die Wunderkammer
11/30/2012

Thursday, March 21st - May 1st, 2013 The Lodge Gallery: 131 Chrystie Street, NewYork, NY Open to the public from March 21st through May 1st, 2013, Republic Worldwide deconstructs and reimagines the traditional Wunderkammer through works by over a dozen New York based contemporary artists that will stoke your sense of wonder and odd delight. Artists include Paul Brainard, Kate Clark, Lori Field, Aaron Johnson, Melora Kuhn, Dennis McNett, Hayley McCulloch, Pop Mortem, Lucia Pedi, Mac Premo, Graham Preston, Christy Rupp, Sigrid Sarda and Madeline Von Foerster. Curated by Keith Schweitzer and Jason Patrick Voegele. The Wunderkammer, or “Cabinet of Curiosities,” evokes the encyclopedic wonder and spirit of discovery that was the glory of the European enlightenment. Historically, room sized displays of exotic oddities and artifacts were unceremoniously presented in salon style to fascinated general audiences who were hungry for natural science, culture and entertainment at the dawn of the age of reason. It could be described stylistically as a turned out junk drawer of the sublime. “Die Wunderkammer; Objects of Virtue” celebrates our inherent fascination with the foreign and strange through an exhibition of paintings, sculpture, drawings, mixed-media assemblage, woodblock printmaking, multimedia works and interactive participatory installation. A series of performances, artist salons and additive artwork installations are scheduled throughout the run of the exhibition. VIP Preview Reception March 20th (RSVP required): Sponsored by Hendrick’s Gin, Hosted by Fig. 19 Produced in partnership with RIOT Development For more information please contact info@republicworldwide.com or call 917. 478. 7513

ArtInfo :The Double Dirty Dozen
8/22/2012

Oh, sleepy Chelsea summer…what better time for a massively overstuffed group show in which all the work is about sex? “The Double Dirty Dozen (& Friends),” which manages to simultaneously sound like both an animated children’s show and a gonzo porn film, opens this evening at New York’s Freight + Volume. We’ll be there, drinking ice cold canned beer and getting accidentally groped by what’s sure to be a very dense, artistically aroused crowd.Above is Paul Brainard’s work for the show, The Birth of Tim Tebow. Other participants includeJules de Balincourt, Ryan Schneider, Russell Tyler, Nicole Wittenberg, Daniel Heidkamp, Jennifer Sullivan, Tom Sanford, Jazz-minh Moore, and a whole bunch more. If you can’t come tonight–insert immature chuckle here–these highbrow perversions are on view through September 22.

Double Dirty Dozen on Huffington Post
8/22/2012

What happens when you invite 50 artists, described as "rabble-rousers" in the press release, to make art about sex — whether dirty, funny or just plain bizarre? Well, in a playful exhibition entitled, "The Double Dirty Dozen (& Friends)," you get a large sign on the door that states, "No One Under 18 Admitted."The show's title references the 1967 take-no-prisoners war film "The Dirty Dozen" by Robert Aldrich, in which a gang of ex-cons join forces for the impossible mission of assassinating German war criminals. Freight + Volume Gallery ditches the weapons for wit as the group of artists embarks on the debatably comparable mission of representing sex in a manner that will shock and titillate the most jaded libidos.The challenge at hand requires a lot more than NSFW body parts to make us blush... and we have to say, mission accomplished. For example Paul Brainard's horrifying work, "The Birth of Tim Tebow" features the pretty and pure football player emerging from a porn star's family jewels. Also, the Doritos logo is pictured, which makes the scene even worse. But more off-putting (in a good way) than the pop-political jabs are the scenarios which amp up the silly. Johnston Foster's "El Natural" makes literal the dirty old man who appears like R. Crumb's Mr. Natural was hanging out withTom Hanks in Cast Away.Is sex in art still shocking? Maybe so, maybe not, but we certainly find it funny, strange and worth exploring. We are happy to visit any exhibition where outcasts are glorified and artists are invited to push the envelope a bit, letting freak flags everywhere fly freely."The Double Dirty Dozen (& Friends)" will show at Freight + Volume in New York until September 22, 2012.

Washington Post Review
7/13/2012

In 2009, Randall Scott moved his gallery from Logan Circle to Brooklyn. Now he’s back in town, without a permanent location but with an interesting selection of artists. Scott’s current group show, “Untitled No. 1,” is on display in a warehouse near the 9:30 Club. The building is un-air-conditioned and marked for demolition, but it’s a good fit for this exhibition of often brash work by seven New York and Los Angeles artists.While the show includes art that’s exquisitely detailed or gently serene, most of it is edgy and contemporary — or at least as contemporary as the ’80s punk rock evoked by Chris Bors and Michael Bevilacqua. Pop-culture references abound, although Tokyo-born Tomokazu Matsuyama uses centuries-old Japanese motifs for his large canvases, which subject samurai to the indignities of pop art and color-field painting.1CommentsWeigh InCorrections?Personal Post(Courtesy Chris Bors/Randall Scott Projects) - Chris Bors, ‘Agnostic Front,’ 2011, acrylic on canvas.(Courtesy Michael Bevilacqua/Randall Scott Projects) - Michael Bevilacqua. ‘DISintigrate/Annihilate,’ 2012 acrylic, spray paint on canvas.Paul Brainard’s dense drawings, mostly in pencil, contrast everyday people and places with movie- and comics-derived images of monsters and pin-up girls. Joe Biel paints monkeys, every hair seemingly in place, with watercolor and latex; the simians sit or stand on empty backdrops, holding or pondering such incongruous props as a radio, a shofar or a tuning fork.Bevilacqua’s smeary silver and black paintings repeat the words “dis” and “order”; one has the phrase “unknown pleasure” etched into the paint, suggesting a Joy Division album whose first song is “Disorder.” Bors evokes more than one band: His paintings, which simulate spilled watercolors running down the pages of children’s coloring books, are named for the groups whose logos they incorporate, including Agnostic Front and Reagan Youth.The show’s two abstractionists are Mason Salterrelli and Robert Kingston. The former uses oils and sprayed acrylics to create hazy, gray- and tan-heavy images that suggest natural forms. The latter allows bright colors in the small canvases of his “Montauk Series,” but his larger pictures are predominantly sandy. Kingston, who’s based on the desert side of L.A. County, paints vast almost-landscapes that are all the more powerful for their near emptiness.

Dollar Bill Show
7/13/2012

ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. The title of the exhibition is "One Hundred Dollars". All the artwork for this show utilizes the U.S. ONE DOLLAR BILL as a canvas. There will be one hundred artists in the show. All the artwork is available for one hundred dollars each. Money is simply a piece of paper, Art is simply a form of communication, yet both carry incredible power. Concepts permeate art and money. The perception of value or authority. The ancient codes used and doctrines communicated. Layered and surreal images that appear with beautifully crafted portraits, scenes, symbols, forms and typography from generations past. Precious objects we exchange and collect. One Hundred Artists, One Hundred Dollar Bills, every dollar bill Art Piece is for sale for One Hundred Dollars. Opens: July 14th 6-9pm Closes: August 9th LittleField 622 Degraw Street New York, NY 11217

Art In America
2/9/2012

"MIE: A Portrait by 35 Artists," on view through Feb. 25 at Freight + Volume gallery in Chelsea, is one of the more unusual group surveys of the new season, and casts a fresh light on the venerable theme of artist and model. The show includes a few star artists (Alex Katz, Robert Frank), many who have stirred recent critical interest (Ryan Schneider, Kurt Kauper, Andrew Guenther, David Humphrey), one pop-cult figure (Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky) and several participants who, well-known abroad, are emerging in the West (Lin Yilin, Noritoshi Hirakawa, Qi Zhilong). Even more striking is the curatorial approach. The exhibition was co-organized by gallery owner Nick Lawrence with the portrait subject herself—Mie Iwatsuki, a Japanese-born model and independent curator who has lived in New York since 1999.

WPIX News
3/16/2011

WPIX News at 11 video.

LES 'Porn' exhibit riles Jewish neighbors
3/15/2011

A racy new exhibit on display at a Lower East Side art gallery is causing great tsuris among its Orthodox Jewish neighbors.

Members of a nearby synagogue and Hebrew school are outraged over the lurid artwork on display in the Allegra LaViola Gallery's new "Pornucopia" exhibit, which features a slew of sexy nude images of men and women, some having sex.

Some of the "porn" pieces are clearly visible through the East Broadway gallery's windows -- and people are fuming that kids are being exposed to smut.

"This is disgusting. This is absolutely unacceptable," said Miriam Katz, a teacher at the nearby Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem. "My students are innocent children, and they walk by and shouldn't be exposed to this disgrace. This is pornography.
PEEPING MOM: A passer-by sneaks a peek at the Allegra LaViola Gallery's racy 'Pornucopia' exhibit.
Gabriella Bass
PEEPING MOM: A passer-by sneaks a peek at the Allegra LaViola Gallery's racy "Pornucopia" exhibit.

"You see in quite detail the anatomy of women. There's a yeshiva there with boys who pass by every day."

The "Pornucopia" exhibit features works such as "Young Girl on Doll" by Prudence Whittlesey, "Hot and Bothered" by Kara Maria and "Crap and S- - -" by Paul Brainard. The display closes on March 18.

Gallery owner Allegra LaViola, 30, last week defended "Pornucopia," saying people living in a cosmopolitan place like New York should be used to such displays.

"Then they asked if I would put a curtain up, I said . . . we actually live in New York City, not in the woods of Maine."

LaViola said that she's gotten at least five complaints and that someone from the Jewish community even called the cops.

"I got a very angry rant call from a man saying we were putting pornography in the public sphere," she said. "We said it's an art gallery, we're allowed to put this up.

"Two days later, I got the first visit from the police . . . [the officers] said, 'We don't see any problem here,' and the police told one of the callers that it was my First Amendment right to put works on the wall."

Despite LaViola's constitutional rights, people in the Jewish community think she should care more for her neighbors' feelings and keep graphic images inside the gallery -- or cover them up.

"It's disgusting. It's bad news," said Rebetzin Esther Horowitz, 49, who runs a preschool at Lutowisker Synagogue. "In any neighborhood, these things shouldn't be in full view. I don't know what this world is becoming."

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/xxx_and_oy_Q1LpErAZJfJDeleZMv8lgM#ixzz1GgsihKAu

Nudity Loving Artist
3/11/2011

NEW YORK—A current exhibition at the Lower East Side's Allegra LaViola Gallery has drawn fiery opposition from some unlikely art critics: Orthodox Jews. The show, "Pornucopia," examines excess and pornography in artwork and includes paintings, video, and installations by nudity-loving artists Alison Blickle, Paul Brainard, and Stephen Irwin. According to LaViola, rumblings of dissatisfaction began with a visit from an irate rabbi during the February 4th opening and have continued for the duration of the show, culminating with three visits from the police in the last two weeks.

Beautiful Decay
1/28/2011

Paul Brainard’s got a healthy libido, there’s no doubting that. He mixes it up with junk food, memento mori, geometric abstraction and political anger to create work that seduces and repels. Dredging into the murky area of what the French psychologist Jacques Lacan called “desire;” defined as: what you want after you’ve got everything you need. Cue the Rolling Stones, I can’t get no (guitar riff) satisfaction. Brainard is bad mofo with a pencil, after the jump there’s some tasty drawings. You can see Paul’s work in SF at Guerrero Gallery, and in NYC at Allegra LaViola for the upcoming group show Pornucopia, which is running from Feb 4th to March 11th.

P O R N U C O P I A !
1/26/2011

Pornucopia
February 04 - March 11, 2011
Featuring
Ryan Alexiev
Josh Atlas
Ion Birch
Alison Blickle
Paul Brainard
Amanda Church
Duncan Hannah
Catherine Howe
Stephen Irwin
Will Kurtz
Sarah Kurz
Daniel Lyons
Panni Malek
Kara Maria
Tom Sanford
Lyle Starr
Prudence Whittlesey

Allegra LaViola Gallery is pleased to present “Pornucopia”, a group exhibition featuring painting, works on paper, video, sculpture and installation pieces.

The exhibition takes the idea of plenty as its starting point. Once a notion so incredible it was given as a gift by the Gods, the idea of abundance is now an every day experience. Supermarkets are filled with brightly colored packaged foods that never rot and barely dressed women are used to sell everything from toilet paper to toothbrushes. In this world of excess, what do we use to fill the void?

In Ryan Alexiev’s The Wizard of O’s we are introduced to a shockingly bright landscape of breakfast cereal. Referencing the poppy induced journey that Dorothy and her friends undertook, Alexiev builds a city out of neon dust; just as the Wizard in the story turned out to be just a little man behind a curtain, so too the fantastical scenery here is only air with additive colors. Our sweet tooth is indulged again by Josh Atlas, whose “Donut Spa” is blackly humorous: the usual image of a svelte woman surrounded by celery is replaced by the revolting overabundance of sugary donuts, so many that the man in question is engulfed by the tide of dessert.

Junk food makes an appearance in the work of Paul Brainard, whose paintings and drawings combine the advertiser’s artful positioning with an onslaught of provocative images. Like navigating a video game or super highway, information is thrown at us from every angle, asking us to pause and indulge before being replaced by another equally captivating vision. Advertising also makes an appearance in Duncan Hannah’s cheeky collages, though what is on offer is not a straightforward as it seems. Similarly, the kaleidoscope world of Kara Maria, where aging naked women guzzle gasoline, is couched in the static world of TV and advertising. Images once used to be alluring are transformed into horrifying combinations, no longer seducing, just frightening. Tom Sanford does not shy away from transforming the ignoble into the stately, either. An unappealing trio of celebrity women are named The Three Graces, and the simple beer can and rolled bill are changed from mere tools of indulgence to monumental icons. The celebration of beauty and elegance comes up empty when what is venerated is hollow.

Taking a more delicate approach, Catherine Howe presents richly constructed still lives that vibrate with veiled energy. From deep within the fecund arrangements, small ghosts manifest and then disappear as our gaze shifts. There are no preservatives here: the bounty is real, but rotting. The classical also informs the work of Alison Blickle, Sarah Kurz *and *Panni Malekzadeh, whose beautiful women frolic indoors and out. Though the characters seem complicit in their seductive gestures, their cinematic allure is all for an audience of no one. Like the airbrushed women who wink from the pages of pornography magazines in solitary splendor, these figures are performing for the viewer alone.

The more graphic sexual content of pornography is embraced by Stephen Irwin, whose works are the classic embodiment of “know it when you see it” pornography. Even with the choice bits missing there is no question what is going on here. Ion Birch’s cartoon romps seem innocent from afar, but viewed for more than a second leave no doubt as to what is going on. Amanda Church and Daniel Lyons also thrust the explicit at us, leaving little doubt as to how we approach and commodity the bodies presented as objects. And if it is action we are after Will Kurtz, Lyle Starr and Prudence Whittlesey do not shy away from delivering the goods.

As we give ourselves permission to satisfy every desire or craving with a quick fix, we must ask what we give up in the process. Trading the real cornucopia for the plastic version doesn’t preserve us forever, it merely staves off the inevitable. But we certainly will have a good time getting there.

Design Mag - Czech Republic
11/23/2010

Dvorak Sec vystavuje sexy obrazy Paula Brainarda

Paul Brainard v galerii Dvorak Sec Contemporary

V galerii Dvorak Sec Contemporary je ještě posledních den, jen do 16. listopadu, k vidění tvorba newyorského malíře Paula Brainarda. Brainard se v České republice a i v celé Evropě samostatně prezentuje vůbec poprvé. Výstava nese název Living Dead.

Galerie Dvorak Sec působí v pražském galerijním světě již dva roky, a to v ulici v Dlouhé. Do Prahy vozí a zastupuje zde slibné americké umělce a do světa se naopak snaží tlačit progresivní české umělce, o jejichž potenciálu nemá pochyb. Výstava Paula Brainarda je v pořadí již čtvrtou výstavou této galerie seznamující české milovníky umění se současnou mladou newyorskou scénu.

Výstava Living Dead je odvozena od jednoho hororového snímku natočeného ve městě, kde Brainard vyrostl. Spojuje v sobě dva životní protiklady - život a smrt. Snad na všech obrazech se v nějaké podobě objeví lebka. Hlavní myšlenka jeho tvorby je založena na konzumní společnosti v Americe. Brainard se s dávkou humoru, ale zároveň i cynismu, snaží vystihnout současný život v americké společnosti - a to především městský život v New Yorku, newyorské metro - jeho systém, značení a současnou zrychlenou pop kulturu plnou reklam, známých obličejů, či nahých těl.

Brainard se v Praze představuje dvěma svými formami uměleckého projevu - na jedné straně stojí jeho barevné olejomalby, na straně druhé můžeme vidět černobílé kresby. Jeho dílo spojuje charakter koláže, ve které můžeme vysledovat prvky geometrie, abstrakce, figurativního umění a pop artu. Jeho obrazy v sobě ukrývají svět reklamy v podobě krátkých, avšak úderných reklamních sloganů, či jiných slovních spojení populární kultury, graffitti, reklamní plakáty, které byly rozstříhány a opět zkombinovány. V jeho dílech se nezapře ani vliv hudby, především popu a rocku.

Jeho styl je umělecky velmi rozmanitý a umožňuje mu vytvořit ucelenou metaforu života v New Yorku. Když tvoří, tak se mu obrazy vyvíjí pod rukama a ani on sám na počátku své práce mnohdy netuší, jaká bude jejich finální podoba. “Doufám, že ten, kdo spatří moje obrazy nebo kresby, vycítí, jak v nich vibruje život a jak jsou nabité emocemi,” řekl Brainard na vernisáži.

Hospodarske Noviny
9/29/2010

Chcete poznat, komu bude patřit budoucnost na newyorské výtvarné scéně? Pak zamiřte do pražské galerie Dvorak Sec Contemporary. Právě je tam k vidění mladý Paul Brainard, který se českému publiku představuje výstavou Living Dead.

Galerie Dvorak Sec Contemporary vznikla před dvěma lety v Dlouhé ulici na pražském Starém Městě. Ve velkorysém prostoru ve dvou podlažích činžáku z konce 19. století pořádá výstavy současného umění, jaké by nezapadly ani za mořem. Zastupuje totiž nejslibnější mladé americké umělce a do světa pomáhá progresivním umělcům českým, o kterých je přesvědčena, že mají potenciál.

"Šli jsme do toho s tím, že budeme přivážet nové newyorské trendy a přibližovat tamější výtvarnou scénu," říká galeristka Olga Dvořáková o začátcích Dvorak Sec Contemporary, kterou založila společně se sběratelem Petrem Šecem. Sérii amerických výstav zahájila velmi úspěšným představením mladé výtvarnice Dany Bell Still(s). Na přelomu loňského a letošního roku navázala skupinovou výstavou A Taste of Young New York, a tím předznamenala autorské výstavy mladých Newyorčanů rozložené do dvou příštích let. V současné době probíhá v galerii výstava Paula Brainarda (* 1969) Living Dead, která je už čtvrtou autorskou výstavou z amerického cyklu této galerie.

Zkušená obchodnice Olga Dvořáková, specialistka na investice do umění, do svého projektu vybrala v New Yorku osm mladých výtvarníků, kteří splňují náročná kritéria. "Musí být absolventy některé z nejprestižnějších škol a musí mít nějaký významný zářez ve své biografii, čímž myslím účast na zásadním bienále či grantovém programu...," vypočítává. Záleží podle ní také na tom, aby vybraní autoři byli uvedeni v seznamu White Column Register. Tato instituce připisuje na svůj seznam kvalitní umělce, kteří zatím ještě nemají galerijní zastoupení. "V tom seznamu loví mnoho galeristů, nejen já," přibližuje Olga Dvořáková.

Z Brainardova díla jsou v Praze vystaveny obrazy a kresby. Umělec osobitě kombinuje geometrickou abstrakci, figurativní umění a pop art. Reaguje na svět reklamy, vrství a překrývá různé formy. "Doufám, že ten, kdo spatří moje obrazy nebo kresby, vycítí, jak v nich vibruje život a jak jsou nabité emocemi," řekl Brainard na vernisáži.

Olga Dvořáková tvrdí, že musí být schopná vycítit, který z umělců do jednoho dvou let najde galeristu. "Pak se jeho ceny okamžitě ztrojnásobí. My ho ale zachytíme tak brzy, že jeho díla ještě získáme za třetinovou cenu," prozrazuje, jak doporučuje vybrané výtvarníky sběratelům, kteří se - jejími slovy - "vymanili z nakupování českých Fillů a Špálů, v zahraničí neprodejných".

Z českých umělců zastupuje Dvorak Sec například Davida Černého, Jiřího Davida, Romana Týce. Také mladého Jakuba Matušku, zvaného Masker. "Ve street artu vidím silný moment budoucnosti současného českého umění," myslí si galeristka.

Na výstavě The White Project jsou teď v galerii k vidění práce čtyř českých autorů, Jiřího Černického, Jiřího Davida, Davida Pešata a Denisy Hřičiščové.

Prague Post Review - Stephen Delbos
9/22/2010

Minimum mediation

Brainard's work appropriates and examines popular culture

Posted: September 15, 2010

By Stephan Delbos - Staff Writer |
Minimum mediation

Ninety Thousand Screaming Watts is a visual cacophony of cultural quotations.

Schizophrenia is characterized by hallucinations, paranoid delusions and erratic thoughts and behavior. More than a few psychoanalytic theorists, including Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, have posited connections between capitalism and schizophrenia, suggesting the advertising overload one experiences on a daily basis leads to a fragmented mindset. New York artist Paul Brainard treads similar territory in his exhibition of paintings and drawings at Dvorak Sec Contemporary, though the artist seems more interested in recreating through his work the sensation of daily life in urban capitalist society than in offering any solutions.

The exhibition consists of collage-like pencil drawings and oil paintings in which lost and half-forgotten pieces of popular culture are combined with snippets of language from ad campaigns. The result is an unsettling reappraisal of contemporary existence from the inside out, with only minimal mediation by the artist.

All for Themselves After All is one of the most evocative pieces in the show. A dark, heavily shaded pencil drawing, the piece contains references to pornography, subway signage, Depeche Mode lyrics and e-mail spam messages - the fragmented flotsam of American culture. The various images and texts combine to form a diorama of the city dweller's unconscious, awash as it is with a constant tide of sensory overload. This unsettling piece puts a nightmarish spin on the American dream.

Other drawings are darker and less suggestive. October 17, 2005 is almost completely black, save for a swimsuit model whose head has been replaced by an oblong geometric design. Two other female faces populate the piece, one of which is in a state of decomposition and is fading into the darkness. Several perspective lines are etched into the black foreground, and the white, stenciled date "October 17" is barely visible.
Paul Brainard:Living Dead
at Dvorak Sec Contemporary
Ends Nov. 26
Dlouhá 5, Prague 1-Old Town.
Open Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Brainard's paintings offer less depth and more flash than his drawings. The shattered signage remains, alongside snippets of pornography: naked female figures with unusually large breasts and torsos topped with male heads - juxtapositions that highlight the exploitation of the human figure for commercial means.

Most of Brainard's paintings, like Ninety Thousand Screaming Watts - the title of which is taken from a Mötley Crüe song - are crisscrossed with white, spear-like lines and large passages of white. Coupled with seemingly random images, including pepperoni pizza slices, the early 1980s arcade game character Q-Bert, cassette tapes, skulls and breasts, these frantic paintings seem to stutter and skip like a television between channels. Brainard's palette - mostly pastels, blues and greens - creates a soft background against which his images pop out in stark, neon-like relief.

Other pieces fuse the sacred and the profane, calling both into question. President of the United States of America shows a pornographic actress disrobing to reveal a side wound like the one Jesus received on the cross. She is flanked by skulls, the floating visage of Hillary Clinton and the Swiffer logo. It's all here: sex, death, politics and purchasing, equated in the foreground.

At times, Brainard's refusal to comment on his subjects is frustrating, as it seems that he's just pushing simple buttons: likenesses of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, suggestive sexual imagery, popular slogans from such champions of capitalism as McDonald's - these are easy targets, and Brainard hits them dead on, showing a certain skill for portraiture. Ultimately, one is left wondering which gun Brainard is firing: Should we be charmed by the clever juxtaposition of these images or should we be provoked into action?

In many ways, Brainard is covering familiar ground first broken by Pop artists such as Andy Warhol and Joe Brainard (no relation), who used found images and swaths of text in their work, both re-appropriating and objectifying the relics of popular culture and - following Marcel Duchamp - questioning our ideas about what constitutes "art." But Brainard's work is unmistakably dark, even in its attempts at humor, such as the text "Morbidly obese. I'm lovin' it" - a potshot at McDonald's - featured in one piece. Each painting and drawing is a visual cacophony of cultural quotations, but they are more horrifying than comic, and what prevails is a feeling that the fun of poking fun at popular culture has worn off.

The title of the show, "Living Dead," hints at Brainard's attitude toward the human subjects populating his work. When living people - whether Barack Obama or Jenna Jameson - are transformed in television and print advertisements into endorsers of policies, sex or products, they are stripped of their personal, vibrant humanity. Yet these are the figures who represent our society and whom we use to represent ourselves to one another. These popular personalities are indeed the living dead, and we walk awestruck among them.

Stephan Delbos can be reached at
sdelbos@praguepost.com

Live interview on Czech TV
9/4/2010

Interview conducted with the artist on the occasion of the opening of "Living Dead" at Dvorak Sec Contemporary in Prague Czech Republic.

Chelsea Beat Art Review
8/18/2010

"Another Artist in the show Paul Brainard, I’ve been following for some time now and is constantly producing new work that sometimes makes you laugh and other times sticks you in the side with a switchblade. Always technically amazing, I am more familiar with his drawings but in these new paintings he has really let his sense of abstraction go off on a tangent. A wonderful, colorful tangent."

Guerrro Gallery Opening
7/22/2010

August Group Show
Co-curated by Eddie Martinez
August 14, 2010 — September 04, 2010

Featured Artists:

Arien Valizadeh, Brian Belott, Conrad Ruiz, Derek Aylward, Eddie Martinez, Eduardo Recife, Jamison Brosseau, Jeanette Mundt, John Copeland, Joseph Hart, Kareem Rizk, Karim Hamid, Kristine Moran, Paul Brainard, Stephen Smith, Wes Lang and Fanny Bostrom.

"Living Dead " Dvorak Sec Contemporary Prague
7/21/2010

Dvorak Sec Contemporary is pleased to announce of exhibition of works by New York-based artist Paul Brainard; the debut solo exhibition of the artist in Europe.

Beautiful Decay Magazine
7/12/2010

Taking on the idea of largeness with largess, Tom Sanford and Ryan Schneider put together Big Picture, a bad ass group show of 19 painters. You can see it at Priska C. Juschka Fine Art until August 6th. New York’s superhuman scale has a way of seeping into your system, and makes people think big.

Opening July 8th Priska Juschka Fine Art
2/15/2010

Priska C. Juschka Fine Art is pleased to announce BIG PICTURE, a group exhibition curated by Tom Sanford and Ryan Schneider, literally comprised of predominately large-scale paintings by a generation of New York based artists, who have emerged over the past decade. The title, while referring to subject matter and visual capacity, also articulates clearly the artists’ own personal ambitions and intentions.
The curators, Sanford and Schneider, define the exhibition as a collective survey of nineteen representational painters, working in the New York City area and linked by their own virtuous handling of their medium while taking advantage of the vastness of their surroundings and the open-endedness of a repertoire of cultural references. By finding inspiration in universal themes such as love, sex and death as well as in the reality of their personal experience, their work demonstrates the eclectic style of a generation versatile in blending categories such as academic painting and pop culture with juxtaposing techniques such as classic paint application and mixed media collage.
At first sight, the works ostensibly differ in aesthetic and visual tonality, evoking a dissonant ambience, expressive in color and expansive with gesture, simultaneously seductive and destructive — they linger in the viewer’s consciousness long after the first impression.
While reflecting a contrasting artistic vocabulary, the individual paintings interact conceptually, insisting in commonality and commanding a shared synergy reminiscent of the Gestalt theory — whereby the entire show pronounces a bigger picture and perspective, rising above the summary of its parts.
The gallery will be hosting a panel discussion with Kamrooz Aram, Lisa Sanditz, Tom Sanford and Ryan Schneider, moderated by art critic and writer, David Coggins, on Monday, July 12, from 6:30 to 8:00 PM.