David Brewster
My paintings synthesize a 200-year-old tradition of American Scene Painting into a new breaking point of abstraction in order to make sense of an increasingly bizarre and incongruous synthetic landscape. I wield a wide range of abstract mark making into a language that provides structure and perspective to order an overwhelming visual clutter. My interpretations of urban centers, suburbia and farmlands are not as we remember them — not sentimental imitations, but as they are, hybrids of historic architecture and modern amenities of late-stage capitalism. My subjects are fast food drive-throughs, big-box shopping plazas, and rotting post industrial detritus. I represent them with neon hues and broad dynamic paint-rollered strokes evocative of our digital age. I also draw with colored masking tape which I retain or remove to achieve the sharp edges and piercing reflective lights of plastic, chrome and glass prevalent in our built environment. I find that I must preserve the glaring white brilliance of the painting surface in my attempt to harmonize the muted natural tonalities of nature with the strident fluorescent color characteristic of today’s road signage, prefabricated buildings, clothing, and vehicles.
David Brewster, November 2019