Sunday afternoon I headed over to the Bushwick section of Brooklyn to see what I had only seen in a couple photos. Brought to my attention by one Loren Munk AKA James Kalm and his selection of exhibition documentaries on various artists on youtube. I am in connection with Mr. Munk on Facebook and saw his post about Mr. Owens almost immediately after it came up in the feed. Immediately I knew it was something I wanted to find out more about. I got in touch with Mr. Owens and he told me that the gallery English Kills is only open on weekends, including Sundays, so I made my way down there to much delight.
I couldn't really tell where it was when walking down there, but thankfully Brent was about to open up the gallery and recognized me, we walked in through the back way and came across a cavalcade of truly imagined work from nature. All of Brent's work is on wood surfaces, a number of them are carved directly from fallen trees or stumps pulled from the ground. I was originally intrigued by his "rug" paintings, done with routed surfaces carefully painted making beautiful handmade patterns. I am usually not a pattern type of person, but these handmade ones really catch and delight the eye.
A few sculptures really stood out too. Well, in retrospect, almost all of them stood out for me. Brent uses wood in ways I have not seen done before. From his use of a stump that had grown over bricks, to a fallen tree from Sandy's wrath turned into a beautiful inner landscape. I almost felt myself being drawn into it's world of pinkness, reminding me of my time in caves, it's stalactites and stalagmites piercing my memory. I'm done talking, check out the picks....
The front/side door for English Kills Gallery.
The artist at work repairing a sculpture.
Hope you enjoyed my little survey of photos I took that afternoon. It's always best to go down there and see for yourself, so I hope these gave you an idea that you'd like to see more. These handmade works really have me thinking long and dark about nature and how it covers us. Thanks Brent for the visit.
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