Paul Brandwein
I am a contemporary American sculptor, painter and mixed media artist whose abstract and the surreal work explores transformation both material and spiritual. My biomorphic forms use subtly changing patterns in vivid colors that often reference images from cellular life to the astrophysical. Born in 1951, I studied at Carnegie Mellon I lived in New Jersey, California and Northern Virgina before studying at University, Kansas City Art Institute, and Temple University to earn BFA and MFA degrees in Ceramics. In the course of my career I taught children and adults in public schools and college. My work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the country and is in many private collections across the country. I live and work in Rochester, NY.
Some of my inspirations include Pierre Lachaise, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Klee, Isamu Noguchi, Ruth Azawa, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Philip Guston, and Elizabeth Murray.
My work straddles the abstract and the surreal. It has a strong visceral feel to it that comes partly from my lifelong fascination with myriad natural forms, my background in ceramics, and my love of vivid rich color.
The shapes I work with are usually elemental, organic and to my mind archetypal, such as spheres, toruses, ovoids, and amoeboids. I rely on them to create deliberately ambiguous images. Often there are inviting crevices and orifices that, in addition to reflecting the elemental human desires, probably harken back to my childhood experiences of exploring seaside tidepools. I try to create textures and patterns that slowly mutate across the surface reflecting how all existence is continually transforming, and I constantly experiment with materials, deriving inspiration from the new patterns and textures that are possible.
