Deborah Brown

Deborah Brown’s ethereal paintings oscillate between closely rendered depictions of still lifes in the tradition of Dutch vanitas painting and more dreamlike figurative compositions, with many works focusing on nude women in watercraft or on beaches. Brown often removes any presence of men from her tableaux, privileging the subjectivity of her women and subverting the male gaze. She occasionally draws on iconography from canonical myths from the Bible and antiquity as well as fairy tales and science fiction. Brown has exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Dubai, and Denver, among others. In 2010, she established Storefront Gallery, an artist-run space in Brooklyn.