Andrew Brown

I’m here only once in this beautiful, messy world and I’m astonished to find myself—of all things—a full time easel painter in Oakland! I paint because I have to. My only art training is a lifelong obsession with Goya, and thirty years of constantly evolving, expressive, live model drawing. And painting. Lots of painting.

I adore color. My canvases are tactile and painterly—rendered in traditional oils. Their physicality is best appreciated up close. Close enough to see the brushstrokes and to spook the guard in a museum gallery. Viewers tend to linger because the paintings work on multiple levels. Inspired by Bosch and Goya, I mix high and low brow. I like the fantastical, and the grotesque. As each painting evolves, odd juxtapositions and cheeky hidden imagery emerge. I want viewers to get sucked in and ask themselves, “What on earth is going on here?” In short: this body of work is a brightly hued, kaleidoscopic, tragicomical looking glass into what it is to be human. Come see it!