Cecily Brown draws from the compositional structure, historical motifs, and virtuosic brushwork of master painters across a diverse range of genres. Referencing these artists and other contemporary images, either in their entirety or by isolating specific elements, her paintings follow an iterative process of drawing and re-drawing, as an exercise in internalizing pictorial systems. Painted in a palette of bright hues to deep blacks, Brown’s works are centered on the human figure, built with layers of vibrating oil paint. Her loose gestures obscure and deconstruct a singular reading as bodies break down into restless, anfractuous and elusive activity.

Born in London in 1969, Cecily Brown received her BA in Fine Arts from the Slade School of Art, London, in 1993. Her work is included in renowned public collections such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Tate Gallery, London. She’s held other recent solo shows at: Thomas Dane in Naples; the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark; Paula Cooper Gallery, New York; Sao Paulo’s Instituto Tomie Ohtake; MCA Santa Barbara; the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; and NYC’s Drawing Center. See Brown’s latest murals at the Metropolitan Opera House.