GR gallery is pleased to announce ‘FORGE’, the first solo presentation of Canadian artist Corran Brownlee in New York and with the gallery. The exhibition showcases 15 recently completed paintings, including 5 from last year which provided the genesis of the new pieces. Ranging from medium to large-scale, and using oil, acrylic and inks, Brownlee is investigating moments of profound change –internal and external, private or public – that affect all of us.

Opening Reception: Friday December 15, 6:00pm – 8:00pm (Exhibition Dates: December 16, 2023 – January 13, 2024) Members of the press can contact GR gallery in advance to schedule a private viewing and/or an interview. The artist will be attending the vernissage.

GR gallery, 255 Bowery (between Houston & Stanton) New York, NY 10002.

This event marks a new departure for Brownlee, as is always the case with his practice: growth is an essential part of his process. Until now, he has used only black and white tones, with an emphasis on story, allowing the viewer to collaborate via adding their own narratives. Here, color has been introduced for the first time. Using a palette reminiscent of fire, lava, the sun, embers, heat, space, water, ice, and love, he presents a much more abstract world. His figures and bunnies –– familiar presences throughout his body of work –– have moved closer to the surface, allowing a more intimate engagement. Movement is intensified, and emotions are heightened. Control is elusive, but surrender is power. The unexpected carries a complex, destabilizing beauty. Brownlee holds a deep admiration of our connection to the stars in the sky, our provenance from them, and the wild upheaval of a supernova explosion. “I’ve always liked the idea of rebirth,” he says. “You can always do it. You can start again, change, and grow.”

These elemental energies range from still to chaotic, rough-edged to precise. While Brownlee offers the viewer an all-seeing eye –– we can observe the bunnies’ bones, notice the wallpaper masking unseen details –– his gesture is to offer his own insights into the journey of life, reflecting back our own new beginnings and paths forward.

Concurrently, in our project room, we will present a refined selection of 4 new works by the Japanese artist collective 3 (three). Established in Fukushima in 2019 is a unit of three artists. Their three-dimensional works and installations encompass an amalgamation of familiar objects, such as anime and video game figurines or fish-shaped soy sauce containers. The subject of their works is multilayered with a strong sense of contradictions in the relationships between “production and consumption,” “the crowd and the individual,” or “the local and the urban,” as an attempt to visualize the aspects of contemporary society-filled irony.
The artists slice manga and anime inspired figurines, melt them into barely recognizable or unrecognizable fragments, then reconfigure their remains into wall-mounted sculptures mirroring the precise dimensions of iPads and flat-screen televisions. Through the recomposition of these screens, 3 critiques the reception of knowledge engendered by new technologies and the ways in which they have changed our ability to process information.