BRENNA YOUNGBLOOD – THE GAME OF LIFE
2017-05-22With her new exhibition, The Game of Life, Brenna Youngblood presents around fifteen previously unseen paintings linked to her daily life and urban surroundings. The artist is able to capture the pulse of the city and her paintings vibrate with the rhythm of the ‘City of Angels’. Her work clearly shows the contrast between the two faces of Los Angeles, the glamorous Hollywood side and the trashy South Downtown, an area which was made famous through films, hip hop culture and gangsta rap.
Brenna Youngblood gathers different elements in her work just like a city gathers populations of various social and cultural origins. From this mix, the artist sources the inspiration and force which characterise her work. She recycles and sticks different materials such as wallpaper, ribbon, cardboard, material or linoleum with fake wood and brick on the painted canvas. This forms an original blend which reminds us of the famous ‘combine paintings’ by Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008, United Kingdom). Another example of the Neo-Dada and Pop Art influence can be seen in Brenna Youngblood’s work when she inserts manufactured elements like printed letters into the compositions. Just like David Hammons (born in 1943 in Springfield, United States), a leading figure of the afro-american art scene, she creates work using puzzles. Brenna Youngblood steers away from figuration and moves towards conceptual art by choosing objects in a precise context.
Opposite – Heaven, 2017
Exhibition runs through to June 10th, 2017
Galerie Nathalie Obadia
8 rue Charles Decoster
1050 Brussels
Belgium
