Artist Bio
Skip Brea is an Interdisciplinary Artist, Academic, and Residency Director/Co-Creator based in New York City. His research-based practice investigates the representations of Black and Brown cultures through digital image archival research. His main concentrations focus on the canons of painting, literature, and all of the narratives and mythologies that come with them. Brea began his art practice primarily as a painter; however, he is currently working with new modes of technology as the sector continues to expand.
Brea is conceptualizing digital graphics and painting tools to question and remodel the history being presented in front of us, both physically, digitally, and theoretically. He deconstructs and reconstructs what we deem as potential visual history challenging what is real versus what is artificial with synthesized versions of historical visual cues.
Brea is a distinguished recipient of numerous prizes and awards. His engagement with Art History and technology has led to several exhibitions across the United States. Brea has exhibited with The Gadsden Museum of Art, The Griffin Museum, The Ross Art Museum, Yonkers Arts Center, more. His work is featured in private and public collections, including the James Baldwin Library at MacDowell, and was one of the first recipients of the Dean Collection Grant. He has been an artist in residence at MacDowell and Yaddo, and was awarded the AIM Fellowship through the Bronx Art Museum, and recently was named Smack Mellon Hot Picks Artist. His work as been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Hyperallergic, and more. Most recently, his was featured on multiple billboards across New York City through the organization SaveArtSpace. He holds a double degree in Literature and Studio Art from DePauw University and an MFA from Florida State University. Currently, he is the Visual Arts Professor & Residency Director at the New York Arts Program.
Artist Statement
My work examines how people of color are represented in visual history. Through archival research, painting, printmaking, animation, and digital media, I combine historical imagery with contemporary forms to question how images record and shape our understanding of the past and our glimpse into the future.
Moving between hand-made and digital processes, I explore how memories and histories are preserved, altered, and reinterpreted. My installations bring projections and physical objects together, inviting viewers to engage with the layers behind an image.
Design Statement
Drawing on more than 15 years of research into digital cultures, technology, and image consumption, my design practice explores how images shape memory and meaning. I use graphics, illustration, animation, installation, and digital tools to treat images as a language and form of signage, visual cues that help us navigate culture, recognize the past, and make sense of the present.
My work brings printmaking and other hand made processes together with digital imagery, animation, and generative tools. Through this mix, I explore how images preserve, distort, and recirculate personal and shared histories, and how technology changes what we remember. The result connects nostalgia with contemporary visual culture and considers how images carry meaning across time and platforms.
CV: Available Upon Request
Personal: BreaSkip@Gmail.Com
Educational Email: Skip@NYArtsProgram.Org