Hogan Brown has been working with Arcadia Contemporary for two and half years and is excited to be featured in his first solo show at the gallery. He doesn’t take for granted the many talented figurative painters Arcadia represents and is thrilled to be among them.
The show, titled Lone Figures, gave him the opportunity to think about how his paintings conceptionally fit together as a body of work.
The Theatre Manager, oil on canvas, 24 x 32"
The exhibition will feature new works from the artist centered around the theme of a single lone figure pictured in the European cities he has visited over the years. You might say that for the English-born painter, art courses through his veins. A family affair, he grew up immersed in different forms of creativity. “My father worked in graphic design and the film industry, and my mother is an illustrator, so my interest in visual art was there from a young age,” Brown says.
Berlin Mitte, oil on canvas, 25 x 19"
Trying to find his own voice, Brown took to studying different mediums and aspects of visual arts before landing on his love for painting, which he continued to do while working part-time on a boatyard in Eel Pie Island on the Thames in London, an experience he feels was beneficial to his evolution as an artist. “I started renovating boats at a young age, around 19 or 20, and feel that the discipline involved in the process helped in my later painting career,” he explains. “Working on your own, putting in the hours and patience for the culmination of the project.” While there, he felt inspired by the characters that crossed his path and other artists he met, and in 1992 he went to study at Middlesex University and has painted ever since.
Garage San Lorenzo, oil on canvas, 25 x 19"
Brown finds traveling to be a great source of inspiration for his paintings, seeking out the uniqueness different cities have to offer, digging up as much material as he can. “I think the selection of material and composition is the hardest part of the process, it being the key foundation for the piece,” he says. “I work quite traditionally, in oil paint on canvas, sitting at an easel, building up the paint until the point when I know it’s finished.”
His paintings feel almost like we’ve just caught someone in a moment, a snapshot of somebody’s day, like crossing the street as in Berlin Mitte or leaving a garage in Garage San Lorenzo.The scenarios feel open-ended, like watching a scene cut from a movie. He does that on purpose, hoping that the emptiness is as important as the figure, telling a story that leaves room for interpretation, letting the viewer tell their own version and connect the dots.
Study, oil on canvas, 24 x 32"
Collectors and spectators who attend this exhibition can take away a narrative that Brown hopes can become part of their own story while representing the core themes of his work. “I hope that visitors and collectors come away from the show visually stimulated and intrigued by the ongoing narratives within the work—that’s all I can hope for.” Lone Figures will be on view September 23 through October 8. —
Arcadia Contemporary 421 W. Broadway New York, NY 10012 • (646) 861-3941 www.arcadiacontemporary.com
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