Michael Brophy
The Russo Lee Gallery opens 2018 with Recent Work by Michael Brophy. In both small and large paintings, Brophy continues his exploration of the constructed landscape of the Pacific Northwest, where man and nature meet. Lava pits and craters, suburban sprawls and uniform developments are contrasted with eerily superb smooth skies.
Brophy’s haunting work returns him and the viewer time and again to the primordial beauty of the Northwest landscape and our human relationship to it, presenting awe and wonder in the midst of beauty or destruction. Whether endless rows of ancient forest giants or the geometric wall of stacked shipping containers, Brophy’s compelling virtuosity captivates viewers as they are pulled into the places he paints and confronted with a new awareness of the relationship between themselves and the surrounding world.
Paul Sutinen interviews painter Michael Brophy about drawing as a kid, the beginning of his clear-cut forest paintings and his practice as a painter