Los Angeles-based multimedia artist Brian Bress combines painting, drawing, animation, video, and performance art into wholly unique works. As he describes it, “I usually tell people that I use video or the container of video as a space to occupy the place where one expects to find a painting. So, hopefully, I play with viewers’ expectations.”His soundless videos feature a range of isolated, masked characters, including chefs, cowboys, and firefighters (often played by the artist), interacting with the picture plane. His works address the connections between film, photography, and painting, and the two-dimensional picture plane these mediums share.
Bress received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, and his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. His work is part of the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
