"Disobedience, Abstraction, and the Opposable Thumb (Tank Man)" Installation

Brian Gillis is a multidisciplinary artist who possesses a keen sense of materials and their possibilities for narrative play. Mixing the found image or object together with the industrial or individually crafted, Gillis is interested in story as both an archive and a mine for the reconsideration of social inequities and cultural dichotomies throughout history. He received a BA in Art Education and BA in Studio Art from Humboldt State University, and a MFA in Ceramic Art from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. As an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Oregon, Gillis is a part of an interdisciplinary program in which he is the curricular head of the Ceramics Area and has specific research interests in industrial manufacturing. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including an Illinois Arts Council Individual Artist Grant, a Brink Award Nomination, and Sculpture Space residency in Utica, NY. Brian Gillis has exhibited his work extensively, including recent solo exhibitions at Tacoma Contemporary, WA, The Icehouse, Phoenix, AZ and the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, MI.