Meet Gary Brewer of DTLA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gary Brewer.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I began making drawings at a young age. In high school I had the good fortune to have an inspiring teacher who recognized my talent and encouraged me. After high school I decided that I would dedicate my life to the pursuit of art. I did not go to college or art school. I have always needed to find my own way, I am not good at following instructions. I prefer diving in, making things and finding my path.
After years making abstract paintings in the late 1990’s, I decided to move away from abstraction. I have always been a lover of nature and fascinated with natural history. I met my wife the artist Aline Mare in 1995. While I was struggling with what my change in subject matter would be, she said to me, ” You love nature and have such a deep knowledge of natural history, you should use it as your subject matter.” That was a big moment in my creative life. Nature in all of its complexity has been my focus for the past 25 years.
In 2013 we moved from Oakland CA to Los Angeles. The art world here is so much more welcoming and generous. The Bay Area always has this tight tribalism and though I lived there for many years and exhibited my work regularly I never felt included in the community of artists. When we moved to LA all of that changed. Artists in LA are much more curious and open about other artist’s work. The energy and excitement I felt at being within a much more vibrant community inspired me to start writing short reviews and descriptions of the shows we went to see. When we first arrived we went to 15 to 20 exhibitions and openings a week: meeting people and getting to know the lay of the land. As I wrote, more and more friends started encouraging me to write art reviews. Initially I was reluctant as I was writing from a place of passion and I did not want to have anyone telling me what to write about or editing my words. I wrote for my own pleasure and to support the LA art world. Later a friend Kristine Schoemaker stated an online magazine Art and Cake. I asked if she would let me write for her, however I did not want to be told what to write, I did not want to be edited and I did not want to write reviews. She gave me the freedom to create my own essay form and I began writing studio visit/interviews. I have written for many magazines including; Art and Cake, Hyperallergic, Whitehot Magazine and many catalogues for galleries, University galleries and artists. My book “Eloquent Eye:: Studio Visits with Los Angeles Artists, 2017-2023” was published in 2024 by Griffith Moon Publishing.
In 2023 I began making ceramic sculptures. It was a serendipitous turn in the road and I was gifted by the muses with a swift transition into this new and profoundly beautiful medium. My sculptures are abstract biomorphic forms that look as though they have climbed out of one of my paintings. My experience as a painter with a deeply developed understanding of color, has given me the vision to create vibrant and colorful glazing techniques that animate these sculptures with brilliant color.
I am also a curator: my latest curatorial endeavor was “Earth Elements: Paint and Fire”, and included eleven artists who have been painters for decades and then began making ceramics that bring the freedom of a painters sensibility to the medium. Two of the artists were ceramic sculptors whose work has a painterly quality and that also work in two dimensions. Curating is a part of my creative output and always is based on ideas that are important to my own creative practice.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being self taught I struggled a great deal. One can be very hard on oneself and I was very good at that! I was filled with self doubt for many years, but eventually found my way to a pretty strong period of abstract painting. After years of work, my experience creating these paintings did not satisfy some inner need, I was not sure what it was but I knew I wanted more. Transitioning from abstraction to my current work was very difficult and took a couple of years to find my way.
On the other side of the equation, I have been delightfully surprised that working in ceramic sculpture came so effortlessly. I began making work that was deeply satisfying almost from the very start, a dramatic difference from my early years developing my style and technique as a painter.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I have developed a subject matter, style and look that represents my sense of wonder at the miracle of life, the incomprehensible complexity of this living universe and the intricate interconnectedness of our world. My paintings reflect how design, form and morphology in different life forms are following some primordial pattern. Each a unique iteration of a guiding principle. Somewhere between randomness and design we look for meaning and purpose, but it is a dream-like metamorphic phenomena that beguiles the thinking mind. I am happy to be an ecstatic agnostic!
My paintings are a kind of botanical surrealism, or biomorphic constructivism. I create dynamic compositions that fuse disparate elements; lichen, orchids, cactus flowers, red coral, natural gold formation and more into intricately composed constellations of wonder. I believe that beauty is a deep and primal elements in the development of consciousness and my works utilize the beauty of nature to touch upon this.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley
Selected Poems of Robinson Jeffers
Assembling California by John McPhee,
The Evolution of Beauty by Richard O. Prum
Vibrant Matter by Jane Bennett
How Flowers Made Our World by David George Haskell

Pricing:

• none

Contact Info:

• Website: https://garybrewerart.com
• Instagram: @garywinstonbrewer
• Facebook: Gary Brewer

Image Credits
Photo credit Gary Brewer