as we head into the last exhibitions of 2020 on election week during a pandemic we are experiences lots of emotions. the main emotion is grateful. grateful we have created a business that inspires us and gives us hope for the future. blessed we get to be a part of the lives of so many creative artists and the positive effects their work has on the psyche. indebted to our artists and collectors for letting us help them connect each other together. thankful for all the years of hard work and challenges we have faced to keep the gallery up and running. we both were so excited for 2020, the line up of solo exhibitions was stellar. our wonderful artists did not let the challenges of this past year hinder their creative process but instead lit an even greater fire in them to spur innovation. the last 3 solo exhibitions of the year for brenda rehrig, johan hagaman and helen robinson are a testament to the strength of the creative spirit and innate abilities.
hidell brooks gallery is by appointment only. please call or email the gallery to make an appointment. you can view all available work on our website with sizing + pricing.
brenda rehrig is an atlanta based painter. she has shown work in group and solo exhibitions, had work placed in private and corporate collections, and has been selected into juried painting publications. her recent body of work reflects her love of and respect for the natural world, and explores texture and luminosity using the encaustic painting medium. the work speaks of nature and the rhythms of nature. the texture created through her encaustic process resembles the natural world-the soft mounds of moss scattered on the forest floor or the rough surface of a pine tree. brenda is able to loosen her constraints to replicate the natural patterns seen all around us. each painting begins with a color concept referencing an idea or a natural thing. the materials used are natural beeswax combined with resin and colorants applied to a wood substrate. this combination of materials is applied and fused over a long expanse of time, the buildup is a paradox of intention and chaos. her paintings are deliberately looking for expression without the use of imagery.
“the use of texture and color is my signature approach to abstract painting. texture is created with hundreds of layers of wax applied with a brush and fused with heat. color is the instrument used to evoke a place or emotion. i also use a scraping technique to achieve the spontaneous curl of wax that implies flower petals in my sculptures. texture, color and spontaneity combine to tell a story that is unique to each viewer. my abstract work is a play on space, depth, structure, color and fluidity.”
johan hagaman was born in jeffersonville, indiana, and earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in english from indiana university. after teaching english in the u.s. and in the peace corps in sierra leone, west africa, johan turned her love for stories and poetry into physical objects. she has work included in many public and private collections and museums such as the tennessee state museum and evansville (indiana) museum of arts and sciences. she is also the recipient of the tennessee individual artist fellowship for 2005. her sculptures are psychological in nature, exploring the stories and myths we create for ourselves to give us meaning. the work often depicts a figure embedded or entwined in some form of nature juxtaposed with rusted manmade objects, implying a larger story of the relationship between the interior landscape of the psyche and the exterior landscape of nature.
“as life seems so odd and uncertain, my art dives deeper into the archetypal and primitive to find wisdom and balance. making these pieces carves out a space for me to breathe, to focus; and in turn, this breath/prana/creative energy becomes integral to the meaning. addressing this strangeness by making something formal feels helpful—like creating charms for survival. a ritual of quiet inspiration seems as necessary as food, and shelter— a home in a bigger time.”
helen robinson is an artist based out of brooklyn, ny. she received her bachelor’s degree in studio art and art history at vanderbilt university in 2013 and continues to build her own body of work at her studio in brooklyn. helen’s work focuses on conceptual portraiture that explores the nature of representation and the limitless potential of the human figure as a subject. she uses non-traditional portraiture to consider modes of representation and self-expression. her paintings are all derived from photographs and studies and are mostly documentary in style. overall, helen's work expresses human connection and social interactions based on our relationship to our surroundings and one another.
helen’s most recent paintings are a continuation of her series ode to the t-shirt. she began the series in 2017 and has continued to build a body of work around the idea that clothes, accessories, and more specifically t-shirts represent unspoken forms of communication and serve as tools of self-expression and representation. for centuries fashion has allowed us to express ourselves creatively and help form a sense of identity; but recently the way we dress has taken on a more political edge. in the last few years, there has been a rising trend in graphic t-shirts vocalizing a strong point of view. verbiage has introduced itself into our clothes, allowing us to plaster our opinions across our chests. it has become a small, yet strikingly clear, symbol of our zeitgeist. now more than ever, people are wearing their hearts on their sleeves, literally. whether that’s a form of protest, opinion, expression, joy, inspiration, humor, fact, or anything else, t-shirts are the perfect blank canvas for visually voicing those ideas, bridging the gap between identity and communication.
as a whole, helen’s body of work explores the nature of representation and the limitless potential of the human figure as a subject. she uses non-traditional portraiture to consider modes of self-expression. her paintings are all derived from her own photographs and studies and are documentary in style. the paintings in this particular series lack a countenance element and are therefore non-confrontational in comparison to a traditional portrait. instead of focusing on the way someone looks, helen hopes to represent her subject’s personality and ideology. along with creating a portrait of her subject’s character, her paintings seek to create a relationship between artwork and viewer. despite depicting real people, her paintings imply a human presence without actually identifying a specific person. the person in the painting is someone, but at the same time, can be no one. Without major identifying facial features, the figures in her paintings become ciphers for her viewer’s own imaginative range of memories and interpretations. the t-shirt in the painting no longer belongs to the model, but rather the viewer. the inviting and interactive nature of helen’s paintings is a common theme throughout all of her work.
all available work by each artists can be viewed on our website under the artist page under each individual tab. click on the artist’s name to bring up all work with sizing and pricing. please call the gallery if you have any further questions.