Paint marker and color pencil on paper 35.5 x 28 cm (14 x 11 in.) Signed and dated on the reverse
About Brian Calvin
In the 1990s, Brian Calvin began developing a figurative, non-narrative, pictorial style. Landscapes and portraits steeped in his Californian roots dominated this work. Close-up treatment of subjects, highly composed structures, as well as luminous colors laid flat endow these large-scale paintings with a strange temporality. In observing his technique of pictorial economy, one gradually comes to see a type of abstraction in his representation of certain details. They reveal, even greater still, the true finality of his work, reaffirming the primacy of a visual reflection on painting itself and its possibilities. “I prefer to experience abstraction through the creation and tending of images. Painting provides the medium.”
In Face, 2021, a female head is abstracted by a totemic abyss running down the portrait’s middle. This drawing is part of an ongoing series of works that explore how multiple faces and features can exist in a single portrait.
Born 1969 in Visalia, CA, Calvin lives and works in Ojai.
About CSSSA
The California State Summer School for the Arts (CSSSA) is a four-week summer program for talented, motivated high schoolers. CSSSA provides training and education in seven artistic disciplines: animation, dance, film, music, theater, visual arts & writing.
The CSSSA Foundation supports creative youth, raising a diverse array of private sector funds to support CSSSA students, and to ensure that no qualified student is denied access to the program due to financial circumstances.
The Foundation strives to support CSSSA students before, during, and after their summer session. CSSSA Foundation’s programs include: CSSSA tuition scholarships, bringing guest artists, outreach and diversity initiatives, college scholarships and more.
