Brandon Mckenzie

I’m a painter and designer from Dallas, Texas who now lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.

My work uses a limited, minimal palette, that focuses on a rhythm of compositional studies that are built on the idea of palimpsest. The pieces go through a month’s long process where they are continually reworked, and where each new layer is being influence by the last. The driving idea behind all these works is that the process is primary, and product is secondary. The act, movement, reaction, and exploration is what’s seen in the expression of the works final iteration. I don't go into a painting with the expectation of creating some specific idea that I've worked out and tested and prepared for, but rather, I go into a painting with the expectation of what the process is going to be, how that process is going to work, and using that process to create what is trying to be revealed.

When I started this project, I wanted to go back to some ideas that I had been working on early in my painting career. At that time, I was painting landscapes of rural farmlands in Western Kansas, where the land is calculated and geometric. Rather than going back and painting those observations again, I wanted to work on essentially what I see as compositiona...

The Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design at the University of Arkansas

2023
The Other Art Fair - Chicago

2022
The Other Art Fair - Dallas

2016
BACK FROM ITALY - Italian Embassy, Washington D.C.

Featured work in a exhibition hosted by the Italian government highlighting work done by students while studying in Italy