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’s compositions could be considered artificial social structures; metaphorical leaps into multiple perspectives of historical viewership. By transforming narratives and mediums with contemporary software Brea creates work that embodies old master type paintings with nuances of our future.
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, Yonkers Arts Center, Working Method Contemporary Gallery, and 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 recently finished residencies at MacDowell, Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and was just awarded the 44th AIM Fellowship through the Bronx Museum. 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.
IG: @skipxd
