EVAN BROWNSTEIN
Hannah…Hector…Henry…Hermes…
April 23 - June 28, 2022
On the Grounds at Duck Creek
Reception: April 23, 3-5 pm

The Arts Center at Duck Creek is pleased to present Hannah…Hector…Henry…Hermes… an outdoor, site-specific body of work created by artist Evan Brownstein. The exhibit will open on April 23, and be on view dawn to dusk through June 26, 2022. A reception for the artist will be held from 3-5pm on Saturday April 23th.

In the Fall of 2020, we visited Evan Brownstein’s outdoor studio in Barnes Landing and were intrigued by his chainsaw-carved sculptures conjured from local felled trees. Brownstein, a photographer/sculptor who moved to the East End earlier that year recalls “The chainsaw coming into my work was based on circumstance. It was one of the few tools I was left with once COVID displaced me from my usual facility based workflows. Because of this the marks I began making with this tool seemed tied to this specific time and place in a way that felt important.”

When the Town of East Hampton cut down a deceased Walnut tree on the edge of Duck Creek Farm in the Fall of 2021, we conspired with Brownstein to give the tree second life. This walnut has now become the namesake of the show in the form of a 7’ tall solid wood sculpture and 3 carved chairs.

In correspondence preceding the show Brownstein wrote: “Making work on the East End of Long Island comes part and parcel with the company of the spirits of Abstract Expressionism; you can feel them curving through the wooded streets, breaking through the branches in the streaming low and golden light. If you are to think critically or art historically the reference is unescapable and the active and evocative gestural mark making dominates the local art historical landscapes.”

“Working with a chainsaw allowed me to make gestural marks on a substantial sculptural materials in a way that was related to how paint might be applied to a canvas in the studio of an action painter. These are the type of mark that I am drawn to when I think about what I liked about painting.”

An additional work “xxx” was created from the Walnut tree, and two more were created with wood supplied by Mark Daniel’s Tree Service. A special thank you to our neighbor Mica Marder, who allowed Brownstein to work on his property all winter, and for his careful handling and placement of these artworks.

Evan Brownstein (b. 1982, New York City) received his BA from Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY and MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA. Brownstein’s first East Coast solo show is currently in production at Duck Creek Art Center, East Hampton, NY. His work has been exhibited internationally at art fairs such as Frieze Masters, London UK and TEFAF in Maastricht, Holland, as well as at Rainbow Body, curated by Andrew Ananda in Seoul, Korea. His work has also been published Internationally including 12 page spread in Draft Magazine alongside Joel Sternfeld, Jim Goldberg, Jon Kessler and others. Domestic exhibitions include Tot Lot+ at No Roof Gallery, San Francisco, CA and group shows at Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA and Greenpoint Gallery, Brooklyn, NY as well as recently being included in the Buffalo Institute of Contemporary Art’s public art exhibition Playground.

For further information about this exhibition, contact duck@duckcreekarts.org