“Banana wickelt die Mädels ein” Painting

Bio: Abby Brown is a figurative painter who is interested in dealing with the topic of identity in her work. She explores her own experience of finding her place in society, despite pressures from a conservative upbringing from the southern United States. She is originally from North Carolina, USA, and is currently living and working in Vienna, Austria. She completed her Bachelor of Arts from Wake Forest University in North Carolina, graduating Magna cum Laude with Honors in Fine Art. After moving to Austria, Abby decided to take the plunge and start living full-time from her art. She has shown her work internationally in Europe, the USA, and Asia. ​ Artist Statement: I grew up in a very conservative small town, which had specific ideas about who and what I should be as a young woman. Nothing was praised more than to be able to deny our own individuality and submit ourselves to the culturally expected norms. I met a lot of resistance as I found my own voice and sense of identity, especially as my desires for my life do not follow the typical blueprint expected of many women. This has led me to tackle the topic of female identity in my paintings. I want to reclaim the beauty and virtue of the free and uninhibited female spirit, while also showing the struggles and obstacles often faced in the journey to find our authentic selves. ​ I am drawn to figurative painting in my own work as I find there to be no more interesting subject than humanity itself, and it is a way to directly tackle the topic of identity. While figures are a major element in my paintings, I want to ultimately use the language of abstraction to express something which could never be put into words or depicted in a narrative sense. Beyond a surface depiction, there are so many complexities and contradictions in our inner lives which can only be expressed through an abstract use of the material itself, which evokes a feeling, response or impression. ​ This dichotomy between representation and abstraction reflects my own experience wrestling with the opposing tensions of restriction and desire for freedom. Recently, my brushstrokes have begun to take on geometric qualities and the negative space in the paintings has started to threaten to overtake the figure. At the same time, the figure still has a strong evocative presence.