Artist's statement
Brant Gordon is an artist trained as both an architect and artist, who paints what he sees. Always based in reality, Brant creates images that exist somewhere between abstraction and figuration and his work is a result of direct observation of the surrounding world. His paintings take people, landscapes, plants, flowers, shadows, and all kinds of everyday objects that, through the process of further observation, the play of colors and forms, and applying liquid paint to a canvas, become increasingly abstract. The resulting compositions challenge the viewer to re-exam the world that we so often take for granted, inviting them to take in the miracle of our existence, seeing and appreciating the beauty of the world that surrounds us every day
His recent work juxtaposes images of historical and current political, environmental, and socio-economic issues with colorful abstracted images of commonplace, everyday subjects, to convey the schism between the ordinariness of everyday life, and the daily horrors taking place in the world, and the rapidly escalating destruction of the natural environment.
Painting themes are often chosen by looking at relevant news items such as Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, the spread of the Ebola virus, the rise of ISIS, or first hand experiences such as a flight over drought stricken areas, or flying over the north pole where the break-up of the ice pack is readily viewable from the plane’s window. Imagery in some way representing or depicting these events is then manipulated in Photoshop and then printed with pigmented ink on canvas that either becomes the first layer of a painting, or is collaged into composition.
Working with acrylic and oil paints, images of daily life, such as plants, birds, flowers, figures, or still-life arrangements, are then incorporated into the work. These images are abstracted so that the results are shifted and deconstructed and multiple interpretations become possible, suggesting the possible fracturing of a known reality. A sense of immediacy is achieved through the use of loose brush brushstrokes, and the deliberate thinning and resultant running of paint down the canvas.