Brian Shepp

323-459-3724
brian@brianshepp.com
www.Brianshepp.com

Brian Shepp is a multi talented artist living in Los Angeles. His fine art work includes, among others, the Godhead Series, The Eternals, The Elementals Photography Series and the Radiant Series of which there are a few examples of each on this page. Brian creates stunning images with acrylic and oil paints, digital photography, image manipulation, printmaking and in graphic design.
The Eternals Series is an expression of his on-going search for compelling texture and physical depth in the work. Using acrylic and oil paints on wood, metal and craft surfaces he has developed a process of “ageing” whereby the final piece appears decayed and time-battered; fragments retrieved from an ancient past. The works, themselves, are meditations on age and the decomposition and impermanence of all things. From the shadows only memories- the eternal truths, remain from our past, enduring and embedded in the substances they have touched. Fragments of wood become historical records, testaments to the onslaught of time and decay; the artist has frozen them as symbols linking the present with the past and the future.
The Godshead Series, is a collection of large scale paintings on wood depicting only the faces of figures from the various pantheons of world mythology from Classical Greek to Nordic, Aztec, Egyptian and beyond. The faces stare out with stark piercing eyes, challenging the viewer to contemplate their expressions and think upon the stories and legends surrounding them. The series is unified by the subject matter and by use of the textured swirling layers of paint, applied like primal clay. The images, emerging from a spiraling vortex are caught in a chaos of color and appear suspended between two dimensions of space. Brian creates these works mostly with his bare hands, applying the paint with his finger tips and using the brushes only for details and for the intensity of the eyes. These are not portraits of people but rather personified representations of the epic tales and symbolic characters that go hand in hand with the ancient gods.
In the Elementals Photography Series Brian Shepp has focused his lens on the 4 elements of earth, air, fire and water. Close up photographs capture the symbolic nature of each element of the cosmogenic theory; the fertility and stability of earth; the ethereal spiritual quality of air, the purifying and consuming heat of fire and the fluidity and clarity of water. In Radiant Beings Series the artist has turned his creative talents to digital art where the physical and sensual form of the male body forms the core of the image. The technical process involves two versions of the image being printed onto a transparent film medium mounted at varying distances from each other over a photographic print of the same image. The final result is a digital artwork of holographic qualities inviting the viewer to interact in a “dance” of perspective as he/she seeks the dimensional center to the image.

EXHIBITIONS

2009 Oct-Dec) 410 Boyd Gallery, Downtown Los Angeles (Solo Show)
2009 (August )A.F.O.N. multi-media event, Industry Café & Jazz, Los Angeles (Group Show)
2009 (June) Studio del Sotan, Long Beach Artwalk (Godshead Series & Eternals)
2009 Premiere: Elementals Photography Series - Private Residence, Hollywood Hills
2009 Art & Mayhem Gallery, Los Angeles (Solo show) “The Eternals”
2009 “Bacchanal” at 55 Degree Wine, Los Angeles (Solo Exhibition)
2009 Janssen Artspace, Palm Springs, (Group Show –“Little Wonder”)
2008 Little Bird Gallery, Atwater Village, Los Angeles (Collaborative show with solo works)
2008 A.F.O.N. Multi –media event, Industry Café & Jazz, Los Angeles (Group Show)
2008 Evolve Wellness, Acupuncture Studio, West Hollywood (Solo show)
2007 Café Abir, San Francisco (Solo Show –The Godshead Series)
2007 Little Bird Gallery, Los Angeles (Group show –“Off they Flew”)
2007 The Coffee Table (solo show “Radiant Beings”)
2007 Wild Oats Café, Hollywood (solo show “Radiant Beings”)
2007-2006 Silent Auction Gay & Lesbian Elder Housing, Trevor Project Equity ,CA
2006 Kaldi Coffeehouse, Los Angeles (solo show “Radiant Beings” & The Godshead Series”)
2006 (Solo show)“Artist’s Salon Party” Private residence, Hollywood Hills
2006 Uncut Hair, West Hollywood (Solo Show)
2005 Solo show “Artist of the Month” www westhollywood com
2005 Marco’s Café, West Holywood (The Godshead Series –solo show)
2005 Premiere solo show “The Godshead Series” at Kaldi Coffeehouse, Los Angeles

* None of the artworks may be copied or reproduced without the written permission of the Artist