Greg brickey

Under the Thousand Stars- 

Greg Brickey's New Solo Show

Interviewed and Edited by Richard Paget

October 2, 2023

Q: Many of your works feature repeated patterns, what drives you to make these design choices? 

I use different patterns for structure and continuity, and also to provide an armature for improvisation. I do repeat a few motifs of interest to me, some of which are not generally used to create objects of art and beauty, such as shapes and colors similar to those found in the camouflage of vipers and venomous snakes. Poppies and other flowers are also regularly used as a motif, as well as windows, LSD faces, ladders, bridges, and rope. 

Stars are another common repeated design element, usually depicted falling from above and also used as a disfiguring energy, burning through both the background and foreground. I began to use stars as a reference to the showers of sparks I sometimes see in my peripheral vision.

I also make use of contradictory visual cues in my painting, and subvert the usual figure/ground relationship. I had a professor who said that I didn’t comprehend the difference between a picture and a texture – which is another way of describing that aspect of my work. 

Also, in the use of pattern and repetition, it’s not just what is chosen, it’s what is rejected and not included. For instance, it’s rare to see much of the color blue in my work, even if there is emptiness and space.

Q: Where do you find your inspiration?

I’ve always found inspiration in my crazy, gothic life: my German mother was a relative of writer Kurt Vonnegut and my father was a member of the Atom Bomb team during WWII. As I heard about my famous cousin, I began to think of art as a means to escape Indiana, as he did before me. We moved a lot when I was growing up and I was always the best at drawing and art, but back then it was never talked about unless I won a contest, and most teachers said that I would be a scientist. However, after Indiana was done educating me, prison seemed more likely, and the only thing left for me as a “career” was art. I’ve always been hyperactive, and as an artist and person, I alternate between the extremes that are so obvious in my art – minimal/wild, abstract/real, sophisticated/feral, humanist/nihilistic. The ADHD energy is my engine of creation, to such a degree that I feel my work is sometimes more of an extension of my body then my mind, similar to what the writer Bataille attempted to describe in “The Accursed Share.”

Q:What changes have you noticed in your painting style over time? 

When I was a kid I drew monsters, war, and nudes. As an adult artist my subject matter hasn’t changed that much, though in art school I did pick up a love for minimalism – probably because it angers so many viewers.

Many of the style changes in my work over time are apparent in Anodyne Forest, which is an abstract installation made of painted snapshots of my days. Due to the wide swath of time covered in the pieces used, most of my painting career is represented. The earliest pieces used are from when I first started painting again after college, during my 3rd methadone treatment in DC. The newest pieces were done last year. The art dealer Ivan Karp once told me that when I am Picasso, then I can have five styles.

Q: What prompted you to explore Abstract Expressionism?

Abstract Expressionism was an influence on me early in my education due to the emphasis on improvisation and beautiful brushwork. But their batty talk about revealing unconscious truths is baloney and hasn’t aged well.

Q:How did Covid impact your career?

The installation Anodyne Forest came about during Covid as a flood of images, with piles of art material carried along by momentum, then mixed up, and physically conflated. After seeing friends disappear in the first wave of the pandemic, Covid forced me for the first time to focus on finishing my work now, because tomorrow might actually be too late. 

Q: Do you have long term painting goals?

Ha ha, when I started out, I thought I had a unified theory where everything connects sensibly, but now I’ve settled for ambivalence and conflation. My goal is to always paint, and play it out until the end.

Q: What are your exhibition plans? 

Hopefully to reach a wider audience, and to produce work on a greater scale. 

Q: What other ways are you creative?

I constantly write and also compose and perform music

Q:Is there a message? Why do you feel viewers will find it compelling?

I have no control over what viewers will see or feel. I have always had an audience for my work, and I love that, but it isn’t big. Some viewers are bored and irritated by my art, and I like that too. It’s all good.