gatherings

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gathering 2772 (antler version) contemporary Native American abstract expressionist painting with tribal bicycle inner tube rubber fringe and deer antler adornment by matriarchal First Nations Plains Cree Anishnawbe artist Bebonkwe Brown (grey, light brown black and white color)

copper gathering contemporary Indigenous Native American abstract expressionist textured painting with tribal geometry circles adornment by matriarchal First Nations Plains Cree Anishnawbe artist Bebonkwe Brown (copper and black colors)

contemporary Native American abstract expressionist and pan-tribal geometric painting by matriarchal First Nations Plains Cree Anishnawbe artist Bebonkwe Brown (mettalic grey, black and copper color)

The works in this series feature expressionistic acrylic or photo-based paintings adorned with culturally significant three dimensional materials. The adornments include repurposed urban refuse, seeds from urban trees and 3D printed objects that all carry First Nations histories and narratives.

The abstract photo-based paintings of some of the gatherings are created from imagery of the urban skin (artist’s term) and are closely related to the nikihk series. Others involve decolonizing/rewilding the historically/colonially loaded floral brocade fabric via painting and adornment with patterns and materials familiar within plains First Nations. The pieces who’s canvases are acrylic paintings also continue my extensive use of washes and/or distressed surfaces.

Whether these surfaces and materials have natural, technological, digital, environmental and/or human-made origins, they are gathered and incorporated into artworks with the same First Nations tradional cultural approach, in respectful and sometimes playful acknowledgement that they are all gifted by the Earth and the Ancestors.

Some of the pieces in this series overlap with the floral brocade works and the putting on beads & feathers series. This series also continues the entwinement of the 2 and 3 dimensional in wall works and paintings, begun circa 2004/2005 with the scar series and the roots of the natura directus et delectibilis series.

All of the photo-based paintings are part of Urban Skins & Ancient Kin, my solo exhibition at the Brooklyn public Library.

Due to repeated unsanctioned appropriation of signature elements of my work, in the interest of protecting work in vulnerable stages of development, I now keep my newest pieces on a private page until they, and/or other closely related works, have been seen in public venues and/or by my peers and/or arts professionals in a context where there is a public record of the production and timeline of signature elements and artworks in my practice.

Feel free to contact me for more info about this.

Interested curators, collectors or other arts professionals may also contact me to request access to private work webpage/s at winter@winter-brown.com.

Hiy hiy,
Bebonkwe ᐱᐳᐣ