When is the familiar unfamiliar? Colin Brant’s paintings of landscapes, birds and animals register with recognition, but unfold through improvisation and memory.
The mystic concentration of Nabis like Bonnard is inflected with the joy and color of the Fauves. With jungle cats and unblinking owls, the specter of the Douanier Rousseau lurks nearby. Landscape is refracted for effects both empathic and naïve, distant and interior. The tension between passages of loose-limbed brushwork and precisely calculated color harmonies, even a carefully detailed bird in a forest of blurs and veils, induces the dreamlike focus of a slow-motion nature documentary.
In these realms of foliage and camouflage, a space is built with paint for a journey of discovery and delight.
Colin Brant (born 1965) received a BA from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1987 and an MFA from The University of Iowa in 1995. His work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions. He received a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Painting in 2002 and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 1998. He lives and works in North Bennington, Vermont.