alex brewer (hense) | Interplay
Exhibition Dates: December 7, 2018 - January 26, 2019
Sandler Hudson Gallery is thrilled to announce the latest body of abstract painting, drawing and sculpture, from Alex Brewer (HENSE). This new exhibition, titled Interplay, deepens Brewer’s ongoing investigation into the relationships formed between his practice in public spaces and his work contained in gallery settings.
Brewer’s creative life took shape on the streets of Atlanta as a graffiti writer in the 1990s. He has now successfully incorporated the formal languages of abstract and minimalist painting into his practice, and still Brewer’s work has never left the public sphere. His large-scale, boldly colored mural commissions meld with the sky-scrapers, walls and courtyards in which they live, bringing new life to old architecture and a monumentality to contemporary painting. Yet, there is always another side to Brewer’s artistic investigation—his monoprints, paintings, drawings and sculpture—which tend to anchor his practice.
The larger-than-life work references and feeds the more intimate work and vice versa. Interplay is about this feedback loop. The demands of a towering mural are relaxed, and the artist can focus on and relish in the delicacy of his forms, which are pulled into a three-dimensional realm with his newest steel sculpture. Studies for earlier sculpture take on a life of their own as framed drawings, and Brewer’s newest paintings turn further away from spontaneity and show us the level of planning that his mural-based work requires.
ALEX BREWER (HENSE) (b. 1978 Atlanta, GA) is an internationally recognized contemporary public artist and award-winning painter. His works in the realm of public arts, grants, commissions, and cross-media connections have landed him local, national, and international public art projects and commissions. Selected commissions include ICON Midtown Tower, commissioned by the Related Group, Atlanta, GA; Building Blocks, Cultural Mural Trail, commissioned by the City of Hagerstown, Hagerstown, MD; Very Fun Park, commissioned by Fubon Art Foundation, Taipei, Taiwan; Facebook Gobal Headquarters, commissioned by Facebook Inc, Menlo Park, CA; Alton Brown’s test kitchen/studio, commissioned by BoxTree Designs and B2 Studio, Atlanta, GA; Westside Cultural Arts Center and Fay Gold Gallery, commissioned by the WCAC, Atlanta, GA; Selected Group Exhibitions include Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta, GA; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; BC Gallery, Berlin, Germany, The Drawing Center, New York, NY; Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, GA; Open Space Gallery, Paris, France. Selected solo exhibitions include Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD; Library Street Collective, Detroit, MI; Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, AL; Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA; Maxwell Colette Gallery, Chicago, IL. Selected Collections include High Museum of Art, Facebook Inc, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Meditech, Langham Hotel, DLA Piper LLC, Hilton Hotels, Novartis, Holder Construction and PRPL Digital Creative Agency.