Putting Order into OCD

Galen Brown’s solo exhibition at the recently opened Melhop Gallery º7077 gives the viewer a lesson in due diligence in the act of creating art. With mark-making consisting of circles and lines, many of the pieces in the show have taken decades to complete. The subtle simplicity of the marks be-lie the profound commitment involved with making the work.

Upon entering the gallery space you are faced with the large-scale piece “First Aid.” The 83” by 83” cross is–like many of the other works–ink on museum board. The obvious reference of “First Aid” might be the Red Cross symbol, but instead of making the color of the piece bold red, Brown used muted shades of lavender, blue, green and yellow as an allusion to the circulation of the body. The boldness comes from the dark red lines running through the center of the cross, dissipating in color at the extremities, as if connecting limb to limb. Like the early work of Frank Stella, Brown finds vibration between the lines, as though the lines are beats ticking along the surface planes.

Also in this main room is the first of many versions of his “Circle Series.” While later versions of this large-scale piece have uneven borders–courtesy of the various sizes of museum board used in each piece–this 5’ by 5’ version is squared off. The history of these large “Circle Series” works revolve around Brown’s past job working at a frame shop in Oakland and not wanting to waste the scraps left behind after completing customer orders. You will find that much of Brown’s artwork involves up-cycling material and giving it new life as evidenced in this piece and also in the three-dimensional “Untitled Canvas Pyramid,” which uses layers of frayed canvas to build up its pyramid structure. Brown felt a “responsibility” to “utilize what was left over” in his life and did not want to contribute to consumer waste that he was seeing so much of.

Limited time to work on large circle pieces and other labor-intensive work at his Hunters Point studio after long hours at the frame shop contributed to how long it took to finish artwork. In wanting to “envelop the audience with the work,” Brown meticulously added ring upon ring to his circles–hence the order in his art practice. Interspersed around these two large pieces in the exhibition, and tucked in a nook behind the front room, are small versions of the “Circle Series” with a range of contrast between the black of the pencil used and the amount of white museum board exposed. In many of these pieces he used beeswax to add not only texture to the rings, but also to challenge the act of making the mark itself. These smaller works ask the viewer to come closer and take in all the nuances of each piece. While one version is black on black, another is soft and smudgey. While most have concentric circles, one has wonky rings expanding out–making it an outlier like the one “ocd” out of sync with the others in the show title. In another room of the exhibition, the “Circle Series” takes on another form- sculpture. These boxes and reclaimed wood frames give depth and dimension to the flat surface of the “circles.”

Also in this side room of the exhibition are intricate works involving printmaking and two steel-supported drawings. The mezzotint “Windows and Doors Series” consist of 12 prints hung in a grid, creating a moody vibe of neo-noir where one can imagine a dimly lit street-lamp nearby. Mezzotint is a labor-intensive process, ideal in the scope of Brown’s art practice. Galen often takes a full day just to create one print from a copper plate that already took weeks to prepare. There are other mezzotints in the exhibition showing a dedication to the method and its time-consuming undertaking.

The steel-supported drawings “Pulse” and “Prime” use vibrant color which contrast to the muted color palette of most of the “Circle Series.” The vertical drawn lines that follow the horizontal orientation of the board are reminiscent of the wooden piers lining Kings Beach, Lake Tahoe where Brown grew up, and when the sun casts shadows off the steel backing, a kind of magic happens and brings the “pier” to life. Each line drawn is a way to mark time, and these extended drawings detail an obsessive need to follow the work and see what happens.

As another contrast to the 12’ long “Pulse” and 6 ½’ long “Prime” are the tiny-by-comparison “Wave” series. These pieces range from 3” to 40” yet still have vibrant color like their counterparts. There is a liveliness to the overlapping colors that also show the influence of Lake Tahoe’s serene coloration.

Brown’s newest series revolves around social media and his desire to stay connected to the time he is in. His “Selfie Series” takes the 1” by 1” generic shape of the Facebook avatar and digitizes it into an abstract silhouette drawing. These drawings are projected in a separate room of the gallery, further distancing them from the “irl” physical work in the rest of the exhibition. Each fast moving silhouette is like an alien x-ray with distorted details. These “selfies” are the smallest Brown has worked, (once again challenging himself in how he creates art) and once drawn, were enlarged to a 24” by 24” print. He considers himself a loner and social media has become an exercise for him. These “selfies” are a way to reintroduce drawing using the computer.

OCD OCD OCD shows the many methods that Brown has employed to create his art. The work spans decades and traverses mediums from pencil and ink to computer graphics. While the “obsessive” and “compulsive” describe the way Brown has challenged processes, using mark-making to subvert the simple line and circle found in much of this work, I find more “order” than “disorder” in the devoted and painstaking work he takes on.

 Essay by Teri Barnes

@barnesteri