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BRIAN ALFRED: Escape Plan

Past viewing_room
17 March - 23 April 2022
  • Brian Alfred

    ESCAPE PLAN

    17 March - 23 April 2022

  • Miles McEnery Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent works by Brian Alfred. The artist’s fifth solo exhibition with the gallery, Escape Plan, will open on 17 March at 511 West 22nd Street and remain on view through 23 April 2022. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication featuring an essay by Stephen Westfall. 

  • Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Brian Alfred: Escape Plan," 17 March - 23 April 2022. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Brian Alfred: Escape Plan," 17 March - 23 April 2022. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Brian Alfred: Escape Plan," 17 March - 23 April 2022. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Brian Alfred: Escape Plan," 17 March - 23 April 2022. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Brian Alfred: Escape Plan," 17 March - 23 April 2022. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Brian Alfred: Escape Plan," 17 March - 23 April 2022. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Brian Alfred: Escape Plan," 17 March - 23 April 2022. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Brian Alfred: Escape Plan," 17 March - 23 April 2022. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Brian Alfred: Escape Plan," 17 March - 23 April 2022. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Brian Alfred: Escape Plan," 17 March - 23 April 2022. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Brian Alfred: Escape Plan," 17 March - 23 April 2022. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Brian Alfred: Escape Plan," 17 March - 23 April 2022. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Brian Alfred: Escape Plan," 17 March - 23 April 2022. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Brian Alfred: Escape Plan," 17 March - 23 April 2022. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Brian Alfred: Escape Plan," 17 March - 23 April 2022. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Brian Alfred: Escape Plan," 17 March - 23 April 2022. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

    Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, "Brian Alfred: Escape Plan," 17 March - 23 April 2022.

  • 'The past couple of years were full of anxiety, worry, introspection, and the unknown. The work in this exhibition is...
    Brian Alfred
    Amazon, 2021
    Acrylic on canvas
    30 x 24 inches
    76.2 x 61 cm

    "The past couple of years were full of anxiety, worry, introspection, and the unknown. The work in this exhibition is born out of that environment. Filled with images of the reality of our global situation coupled with images of imagined escape, peace and calm. The group of images play with a dichotomy of feeling trapped and great escape."

    - Brian Alfred

    • Brian Alfred City Lights Sunset Sky, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 20 x 24 inches 50.8 x 61 cm
      Brian Alfred
      City Lights Sunset Sky, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      20 x 24 inches
      50.8 x 61 cm
    • Brian Alfred Coastal Escape, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 74 x 62 inches 188 x 157.5 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Coastal Escape, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      74 x 62 inches
      188 x 157.5 cm
    Close
  • 'It was important that the images don’t point too specifically in a direction. I want the viewers to feel taken...
    Brian Alfred
    Empty Airport, 2021
    Acrylic on canvas
    50 x 60 inches
    127 x 152.4 cm

    "It was important that the images don’t point too specifically in a direction. I want the viewers to feel taken on a journey of ups and downs, beauty and fear, meditation and rumination, calm and stress. This was where my mind was over the time making the work and I want that to come through to the viewer."

    - Brian Alfred

  • 'In 'Fire Sky,' the vapors are smoke rather than mist and are created in washes guided by a foam brush....
    Brian Alfred
    Fire Sky, 2021
    Acrylic on canvas
    62 x 72 inches
    157.5 x 182.9 cm

    "In "Fire Sky," the vapors are smoke rather than mist and are created in washes guided by a foam brush. These clouds stem from an ominously illuminated central vanishing point to the right of the red sun that billows into the foreground space of advancing, still-forested ridges and the dark mass of a modernist house with long, blacked-out, but reflective picture windows, which is at an oblique perspectival angle to the picture plane. The blankness of the house and windows imply that its owners have either evacuated the area or are otherwise absent as smoke fills the vale. The empty lap pool heightens the sense of geometric intrusion into a natural landscape."

    -  Stephen Westfall in "Uncanny Absences" 

     

  • 'In 'Meditation Field,' and 'Little Red Ridge,' the yellow and red skies, respectively, make an enfolding color statement that draws...
    Brian Alfred
    Meditation Field, 2021
    Acrylic on canvas
    50 x 60 inches
    127 x 152.4 cm
    "In "Meditation Field," and "Little Red Ridge," the yellow and red skies, respectively, make an enfolding color statement that draws clouds and sun into the pattern. The foreground flowers in "Meditation Field" induce an animated motion through gracefully undulating stem lines, while the flying pair of ducks in silhouette, heading stage left, establish a perpendicular gesture above the vertically reaching foreground tree line. Alfred’s paintings often have an implied gesture of movement: the wheeling pan described by "Test Site" and "Empty Airport," or the linear undulations and angles of "Meditation Field" and "Little Red Ridge."

    - Stephen Westfall in "Uncanny Absences" 

    • Brian Alfred Moderna, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 72 1/2 x 60 inches 184.2 x 152.4 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Moderna, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      72 1/2 x 60 inches
      184.2 x 152.4 cm
    • Brian Alfred Pfizer, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 70 x 60 inches 177.8 x 152.4 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Pfizer, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      70 x 60 inches
      177.8 x 152.4 cm
    Close
  • Brian Alfred
    Red Ridge, 2021
    Acrylic on canvas
    70 x 80 inches
    177.8 x 203.2 cm
    • Brian Alfred Rodeo, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 50 x 60 inches 127 x 152.4 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Rodeo, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      50 x 60 inches
      127 x 152.4 cm
    • Brian Alfred Snowy View, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 40 x 30 inches 101.6 x 76.2 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Snowy View, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      40 x 30 inches
      101.6 x 76.2 cm
    Close
    • Brian Alfred Test Site, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 50 x 60 inches 127 x 152.4 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Test Site, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      50 x 60 inches
      127 x 152.4 cm
    • Brian Alfred The Field Code, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 70 x 80 inches 177.8 x 203.2 cm
      Brian Alfred
      The Field Code, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      70 x 80 inches
      177.8 x 203.2 cm
    Close
  • Brian Alfred
    The Great Falls, 2021
    Acrylic on canvas
    72 x 180 inches
    182.9 x 457.2 cm
    • Brian Alfred The Park, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 24 x 20 inches 61 x 50.8 cm
      Brian Alfred
      The Park, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      24 x 20 inches
      61 x 50.8 cm
    • Brian Alfred Wheat & Sun, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 20 x 24 inches 50.8 x 61 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Wheat & Sun, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      20 x 24 inches
      50.8 x 61 cm
    Close
    • Brian Alfred Land(e)scape, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 20 x 24 inches 50.8 x 61 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Land(e)scape, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      20 x 24 inches
      50.8 x 61 cm
    • Brian Alfred Little Red Ridge, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 20 x 16 inches 50.8 x 40.6 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Little Red Ridge, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      20 x 16 inches
      50.8 x 40.6 cm
    Close
  • "Alfred’s paintings and videos are seemingly serene explorations of a pictorial tradition of flatness (in the portrayal of landscape and city life from the street)—a tradition that extends back to Ukiyo-e prints and the resulting Japonisme movement in nineteenth-century France, and forward through such contemporary iterations as the paintings of Allan D’Arcangelo and Alex Katz."

    - Stephen Westfall in "Uncanny Absences" 

    • Brian Alfred Campfire Escape, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 14 x 11 inches 35.6 x 27.9 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Campfire Escape, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      14 x 11 inches
      35.6 x 27.9 cm
    • Brian Alfred Empty Office, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 14 x 11 inches 35.6 x 27.9 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Empty Office, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      14 x 11 inches
      35.6 x 27.9 cm
    Close
  • 'All the surfaces of his paintings are readable in their location of sequence of application; you can follow the taped-off...
    Brian Alfred
    Upstate, 2021
    Acrylic on canvas
    14 x 11 inches
    35.6 x 27.9 cm

    "All the surfaces of his paintings are readable in their location of sequence of application; you can follow the taped-off and cut edges and peer through the veils. Step back, and the image clicks together, then the planes start to move like rows of targets in a carnival shooting gallery."

    - Stephen Westfall in "Uncanny Absences" 

  • BRIAN ALFRED (b. 1974 in Pittsburgh, PA) received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1997 from Pennsylvania State University...

    Brian Alfred in his Studio, 2021,  Brooklyn, NY. 

     

    BRIAN ALFRED (b. 1974 in Pittsburgh, PA) received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1997 from Pennsylvania State University and his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1999 from Yale University. 

     

    Recent solo exhibitions include “High Rises and Double Vision: Images of New York,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “Future Shock,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “Techno Garden,” Maho Kubota Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; “New Animations,” Hezi Cohen Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel; “Beauty in Danger,” Salon 94 Video Wall, New York, NY; “It’s Already the End of the World,” Frist Center for Visual Art, Nashville, TN; “Co-op,” Giraud Pissarro Ségalot, New York, NY, and “Rise Above,” Haunch of Venison, London, United Kingdom. 

     

    Recent group exhibitions include “Transformed: Objects Reimagined by American Artists,” Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ; “Do You Think it Needs a Cloud,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “Fixed Contained,” Kotaro Nukaga Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; “Door Into Summer / M’s collection +,” Maho Kubota Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; “Rag & Bone Mural,” Houston Street, New York, NY; “Art on Link,” Art on LINK/NYC Kiosks, New York, NY; “Belief in Giants,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “The Frame,” Samsung Art TV, Samsung, USA; “Like Oxygen,” Mountain Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; “Room with a view,” EDDYSROOM, Brooklyn, NY; and  “Audacious: Contemporary Artists Speak Out,” Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO.

     

    His work is included in the collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Cleveland Clinic Art Foundation Program, Lyndhurst, OH; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY; Musuem of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX; Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT; Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA; Phoenix Museum of Art, Phoenix, AZ; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; University Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA; Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN; Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Corporate Art Collection, Des Moines, IA, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. 

     

    Alfred is the recipient of the College of Art & Architecture Faculty Research Grant, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA; Institute for the Arts and Humanities Individual Faculty Grant, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA; Jerome Foundation Grant, St. Paul, MN; CarriageHouse Arts Residency, Islip, NY; Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, NY; Excellence Award, Japan Media Arts Festival, Tokyo, Japan; Pennsylvania State University Alumni Achievement Award, University Park, PA; Joan Mitchell Foundation Award, New York, NY; and American Academy of Arts and Letters Purchase Award, New York, NY.

     

    Brian Alfred lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. 

    View More
    • Brian Alfred Amazon, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 30 x 24 inches 76.2 x 61 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Amazon, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      30 x 24 inches
      76.2 x 61 cm
    • Brian Alfred Campfire Escape, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 14 x 11 inches 35.6 x 27.9 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Campfire Escape, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      14 x 11 inches
      35.6 x 27.9 cm
    • Brian Alfred City Lights Sunset Sky, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 20 x 24 inches 50.8 x 61 cm
      Brian Alfred
      City Lights Sunset Sky, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      20 x 24 inches
      50.8 x 61 cm
    • Brian Alfred Coastal Escape, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 74 x 62 inches 188 x 157.5 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Coastal Escape, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      74 x 62 inches
      188 x 157.5 cm
    • Brian Alfred Empty Airport, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 50 x 60 inches 127 x 152.4 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Empty Airport, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      50 x 60 inches
      127 x 152.4 cm
    • Brian Alfred Empty Office, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 14 x 11 inches 35.6 x 27.9 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Empty Office, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      14 x 11 inches
      35.6 x 27.9 cm
    • Brian Alfred Fire Sky, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 62 x 72 inches 157.5 x 182.9 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Fire Sky, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      62 x 72 inches
      157.5 x 182.9 cm
    • Brian Alfred Land(e)scape, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 20 x 24 inches 50.8 x 61 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Land(e)scape, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      20 x 24 inches
      50.8 x 61 cm
    • Brian Alfred Little Red Ridge, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 20 x 16 inches 50.8 x 40.6 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Little Red Ridge, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      20 x 16 inches
      50.8 x 40.6 cm
    • Brian Alfred Meditation Field, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 50 x 60 inches 127 x 152.4 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Meditation Field, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      50 x 60 inches
      127 x 152.4 cm
    • Brian Alfred Moderna, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 72 1/2 x 60 inches 184.2 x 152.4 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Moderna, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      72 1/2 x 60 inches
      184.2 x 152.4 cm
    • Brian Alfred Pfizer, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 70 x 60 inches 177.8 x 152.4 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Pfizer, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      70 x 60 inches
      177.8 x 152.4 cm
    • Brian Alfred Red Ridge, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 70 x 80 inches 177.8 x 203.2 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Red Ridge, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      70 x 80 inches
      177.8 x 203.2 cm
    • Brian Alfred Rodeo, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 50 x 60 inches 127 x 152.4 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Rodeo, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      50 x 60 inches
      127 x 152.4 cm
    • Brian Alfred Snowy View, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 40 x 30 inches 101.6 x 76.2 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Snowy View, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      40 x 30 inches
      101.6 x 76.2 cm
    • Brian Alfred Test Site, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 50 x 60 inches 127 x 152.4 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Test Site, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      50 x 60 inches
      127 x 152.4 cm
    • Brian Alfred The Field Code, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 70 x 80 inches 177.8 x 203.2 cm
      Brian Alfred
      The Field Code, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      70 x 80 inches
      177.8 x 203.2 cm
    • Brian Alfred The Great Falls, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 72 x 180 inches 182.9 x 457.2 cm
      Brian Alfred
      The Great Falls, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      72 x 180 inches
      182.9 x 457.2 cm
    • Brian Alfred The Park, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 24 x 20 inches 61 x 50.8 cm
      Brian Alfred
      The Park, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      24 x 20 inches
      61 x 50.8 cm
    • Brian Alfred Upstate, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 14 x 11 inches 35.6 x 27.9 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Upstate, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      14 x 11 inches
      35.6 x 27.9 cm
    • Brian Alfred Wheat & Sun, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 20 x 24 inches 50.8 x 61 cm
      Brian Alfred
      Wheat & Sun, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      20 x 24 inches
      50.8 x 61 cm
    Close
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