On view through November 13 in the Regional Artists Gallery of the Bennington Museum are paintings by Colin Brant. “I make paintings that refer to a 19th-century American Romantic view of the landscape combined with the dreamy air of the French Rococo. These spaces are constructed with scenes of people and animals to pose questions about our relationship with the natural world,” states the artist. Speak with Brant at his opening on Saturday, October 15 from 3:00 to 4:30 pm.Working in oil on canvas, Brant’s approach is one in which reverence and skepticism coexist naturally. “I like to imagine the possibility of a world in which men and women in their underwear read poetry by a reflecting pool, looked on by deer and birds. I also find such utopian visions amusing in their naïve optimism,” states Brant.
Represented in New York by the Adam Baumgold Gallery and in Boston at the Beth Urdang Gallery, his paintings have also been exhibited at the Geoffrey Young gallery, The Westport Arts Center and the Dumbo Arts Center. He is the recipient of two NYFA fellowships, a Pollack-Krasner award, and was artist in residence at the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris in 2002. He has taught at Williams College and the School of Art and Design at Alfred where he was also director of the Fosdick Nelson Gallery.
Image: Homecoming, (detail) 2009, oil on canvas, 30” x 50”
