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Artworks
Ricardo Brey
Foggy, 2020Mixed media on paper63 x 48 in (160 x 121.9 cm)
67 1/4 x 52 1/4 x 2 in framed (170.7 x 132.7 x 5.1 cm framed)RBR216Further images
Foggy (2020) draws its inspiration from the natural world. The evocative image with its fragment of text recalls the artist’s assertion that the series comes from “… fragments that float...Foggy (2020) draws its inspiration from the natural world. The evocative image with its fragment of text recalls the artist’s assertion that the series comes from “… fragments that float in my memory, images that have no place in the rigid parameters of my previous work.” Featuring a slash of deep, concentrated Parisian blue, the work boasts spreading tendrils of pigment that recall the atmospheric condition after which it is titled. The creeping nature of fog is further underscored by the delicately drawn rhizome-like tangle of budding tree branches whose limbs spread ever outwards beneath thin washes of color.
Brey frequently incorporates rhizomatic forms into his work. Indicative of the artist’s own rhizomatic understanding of dualistic concepts like life and death, good and evil, etc., the continually growing plant signifies his embrace of multiplicity and the non-hierarchical. Refuting reductive binarisms, Brey’s art surmounts divisions between myths, religions, and systems of thought and value to champion a holistic approach to understanding the human condition.
Brey’s work has been the subject of numerous solo presentations, including the recent exhibitions Adrift at Museum De Domijnen, Sittard, the Netherlands (2019); Fuel to the Fire at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (M HKA), Antwerp, Belgium (2015); BREY at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana, Havana, Cuba (2014); and Universe at the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (SMAK), Ghent, Belgium (2006–2007). He has also participated in innumerable group shows, including the 56th Venice Biennale, All the World’s Futures, curated by Okwui Enwezor (2015); Trattenendosi at the 48th Venice Biennale, Italy (1999); and Documenta IX in Kassel, Germany (1992). Brey’s work is featured in countless private and public collections, including the Bouwfonds Art Collection, The Hague, the Netherlands; Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, Havana, Cuba; de la Cruz Collection, Miami, FL; Fonds national d’art contemporain (FNAC), France; Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, Miami, FL; Museum de Domijnen, Sittard, the Netherlands; Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (M HKA), Antwerp, Belgium; and Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (SMAK), Ghent, Belgium, among others.
Exhibitions
2021: Blue Shore, Alexander Gray Associates, New York, NY3of 3