Brian Bress

Brian Bress (b. 1975, Norfolk, VA, USA) is a video artist whose panel works — free from special effects despite a technological tang — incorporate performance, painting and sculpture, often placing a lifesize humanoid figure behind the separating skin of a monitor screen, sharing a ritual and offering a curious companionship. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2016 and 2017 Bress was the subject of a touring ten-year survey, Make Your Own Friends, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver; the Utah Museum of Fine Arts; and the Orange County Museum of Art, California. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among many others.

Brian Bress lives and works in Los Angeles.

Education

2007, Skowhegan School of Painting and Drawing
2006, MFA, Painting & Drawing, University of California, Los Angeles
1998, BFA, Film/Animation/Video, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

Solo Exhibitions

2018
Pictures Become You, Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell Gallery, Akron Art Museum, Akron
Another Fine Mess, Josh Lilley, London

2017
In Lieu of Flowers Send Memes, Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles
The Desmond Six, 55 5th Avenue, New York
The Imperfect Tense (for Josef Albers), Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore

2016
The Desmond Six, Time Equities, Inc. Art-in-Buildings, New York
In the Box: Brian Bress, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk
Make Your Own Friends, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach
Make Your Own Friends, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver
Brian Bress, Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles

2015
A Toyota's a Toyota, Los Angeles Nomadic Division at The Desmond, Los Angeles
Make Your Own Friends, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City

2014
You Can't Sleep on a Door, Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles

2013
Idiom (Brian, Raffi, Britt), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Brian Bress, Museo d'arte contemporanea Roma, Rome
Brian Bress, Galeria Marta Cevera, Madrid, Spain

2012
Interventions: Brian Bress, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara
Brian Bress: Status Report, New Museum, New York
Under Performing, Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles

2011
Creative Ideas for Every Season, Salt Lake Art Center, Salt Lake City
Creative Ideas for Every Season, Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art, Rancho Cucamonga

2009
The Royal Box, Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles

2007
Project Room, Zach Feuer Gallery, New York
Pardon Me, Angstrom Gallery, Los Angeles

2006
Sometimes You Are Just A Hat, RC Art Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

2003
Brian Bress: New Drawings, Open-End Gallery, Chicago

Group Exhibitions

2024
(Forthcoming) Message from Our Planet, Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

2023
Pocket Universe, Philip Martin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Message from Our Planet, Pensacola Museum of Art, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL
Message from Our Planet, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, MI
Message from Our Planet, Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

2022
Message from Our Planet, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA

2019
Stains on a Decade, Josh Lilley, London
9 IN PRODUCTION, Yuz Museum, Shanghai

2018
Paradox: The Body in the Age of Al, The Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg
Do Something To It. Do Something Else To It, Cherry and Martin Gallery, Los Angeles

2017
Screens: Virtual Material, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Boston
Biennale of Moving Images, FAENA ART, Miami; travelled to Faena Art Center, Buenos Aires
Commercial Break, Public Art Fund 40th Anniversary exhibition, Times Square, New York

2016
Mark Leckey: Containers and Their Drivers, MOMA PS1, Long Island City
INDECISIVE MOMENT, Suwon Photography Festival, Suwon
Moving Image Biennial, Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva
Hydroponic Forms, Galerie Ampersand, Cologne
Painting2, Espacio 1414, Puerto Rico

2015
Dopplegänging, Work|Release, Norfolk
SECOND WAVE: Aesthetics of 80s in Today's Contemporary Art, Culver Center of the Arts, Riverside
San Diego Collects, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego
PLAY: Process, Activism, Subversion, San Francisco State University, San Francisco
Mark Leckey: UniAddDumThs, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel
Personalities: Fantasy and Identity in Photography and New Media, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Desert

2014
Mark Leckey: Lending Enchantment to Vulgar Materials, WIELS Centre d’Art Contemporain, Brussels
Sniff the Space Flat on Your Face, Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman University, Orange
Another Cats Show, 356 Mission, Los Angeles
OK Great THANKS this is SO RIDICULOUS, ACME., Los Angeles
Mark Leckey: UniAddDumThs, Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York
Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara

2013
Pop Culture: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City
Brian Bress, Matt Connors, Mari Eastman, Nathan Mabry, T. Kelly Mason, Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles
The Scandalized Mask, Josh Lilley, London
The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things, curated by Mark Leckey, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, Traveled to De La Warr Pavilion, East Sussex

2012
Raze; Revert; Repeat, Pepin Moore, Los Angeles
This Was Funny Yesterday, College of Creative Studies at UCSB, Santa Barbara
Photography is Magic!, Daegu Photo Biennial 2012, Daegu
Four by Four: Collector Series, University of Denver, Victoria H. Myhren Gallery, Denver

2011
Future Present: Five Artists, Five Weeks, Arthouse at the Jones Center, Austin
Stagecraft, University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa
Object Orientation: Bodies and/as Things, Cerritos College Art Gallery, Norwalk

2010
Underground Pop, Parrish Art Museum, South Hampton
cut/PASTE: Collage as Methodology in Contemporary Video, POST, Los Angeles
do I know you, Inman Gallery, Houston
The Mystic's Circle, Human Resources, Los Angeles
In The Eyes of Lions, 533 Gallery, Los Angeles
Video Art: Replay, Part 3: Ludicrous, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia

2009
"Now that I'm by myself," she says, "I'm not by myself, which is good", DiverseWorks, Houston
COMMUNE, Black and White Gallery, New York
FIRST SHOW, Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles
LA Woman, Hanes Art Gallery, Wake Forest University, Winston Salem

2008
Young Curators, New Ideas, Bond Street Gallery, Brooklyn
Free Love Gods, Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery, Portland
Party Favors, Bonelli Contemporary, Los Angeles
Against The Grain, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles
California Video: Artists and Histories, Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Living Room Paintings, Bucket Rider Gallery, Chicago

2007
Rear/View, Freight + Volume, New York
Stalemate, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University School of Arts, New York
Brian Bress & Ruby Stiler, Sunday L.E.S. Gallery, New York
Trudi, Rental Gallery, New York
Machine Imaginaire, Lisa Boyle Gallery, Chicago
Distinctive Messengers, House of Campari, Los Angeles
Big Secret Cache, Angstrom Gallery, Los Angeles
Beyond Image, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena
Kairos!, Kantor / Feuer Gallery, Los Angeles

2006
Landslide: Works by Emerging California Artists, Addison/Ripley Fine Art,, Washington DC
Naïve Set Theory, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles
i know you, but you don't know me, Fette’s Gallery, Culver City
Greater LA MFA Exhibition and Screening, California State University, Long Beach
One Shot 100x100, LA>Chain Letter, High Energy Constructs, Los Angeles
Supersonic 2006, L.A. Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles
Ecolux: Art in the Light of Ecology, Lightbox, Los Angeles
Just My Funny Way of Laughing, South La Brea Gallery, Los Angeles
Soft-Boiled Wonderland, I-5 Gallery, Los Angeles
Boat Show, High Energy Constructs, Los Angeles
Rough Trade, Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles
The Latest Fiction, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles
State of Emergence, LA Weekly Biennial, Track 16, Santa Monica

2005
Untitled Play About Gravity by Krysten Cunningham, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, offsite performance, Los Angeles
Character Traits, I-5 Gallery, Los Angeles
Exhibition #9 - Some Romantic Landscape, Champion Fine Arts, Los Angeles

2003
Anti-Spacesuit: The Dirty Future, G1 Gallery, Chicago

2001
Fellows' Invitational, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown

1999
Young Guns NYC Biennial, The Art Directors Club of New York, New York

CV

Click here to download.
Blondies by Brian Bress, 2023
Helmets, Stripes, Flags, Handbags by Brian Bress, 2023
Relics by Brian Bress, 2023
Clubhouse by Brian Bress, 2013
Installation View: Meridians, Art Basel Miami Beach  by Brian Bress, 2023
Installation View: Meridians, Art Basel Miami Beach  by Brian Bress, 2023
Installation View: Frieze New York  by Brian Bress, 2019
Rabbi Shlomo (on a purple maze) by Brian Bress, 2019
Landscape Bash by Brian Bress, 2018
Organizing The Physical Evidence (Headless Headdress) by Brian Bress, 2018
371 Color by Brian Bress, 2018
Palm Tree Cartoons by Brian Bress, 2018
Clouds Clouds by Brian Bress, 2019
Man with Cigarette (on black) by Brian Bress, 2016
Rabbis #1 (on pastel gift wrap) by Brian Bress, 2018
Doc (on violet dashes) by Brian Bress, 2018
Rabbi David (on green and blue shapes) by Brian Bress, 2019
Installation View: Another Fine Mess by Brian Bress, 2018
Installation View: Another Fine Mess by Brian Bress, 2018
Installation View: Another Fine Mess by Brian Bress, 2018
Organizing The Physical Evidence (gradients on compliment solids) by Brian Bress, 2018
370 Cover by Brian Bress, 2015
Installation View: Another Fine Mess by Brian Bress, 2018
Rabbis #3 (on pastel gift wrap) by Brian Bress, 2018
Installation View: Frieze New York  by Brian Bress, 2019
Starfield Reveal by Brian Bress, 2018
Pink Ladies by Brian Bress, 2016
Astronaut (on mint dreamcatcher) by Brian Bress, 2018
Installation View: Another Fine Mess by Brian Bress, 2018
Sunset Bullseye (cutout) by Brian Bress, 2018
Dune Portal by Brian Bress, 2018
Sunset Peacock by Brian Bress, 2018
Looking Blue (for Josef Albers) by Brian Bress, 2017
Chefs #1 (on orange, blue, and mauve dashes) by Brian Bress, 2016
WOW MOM by Brian Bress, 2015
NOON NOON by Brian Bress, 2015
Mountain Man by Brian Bress, 2015
Ten Inverted Triangles by Brian Bress, 2015
Kelly Drawing Britt #2 by Brian Bress, 2014
Installation View: Scandalized Mask by Brian Bress, 2013
Cowboy by Brian Bress, 2012

Exhibitions

Stains on a Decade at Josh Lilley,presenting Tom Anholt, Brian Bress, Peter Linde Busk, Gareth Cadwallader, Sarah Dwyer, Derek Fordjour, Nick Goss, Nicholas Hatfull, Christof Mascher, Rebecca Nassauer, Sarah Pichlkostner, Benedetto Pietromarchi, Belén Rodríguez , Kathleen Ryan, Analia Saban, Vicky Wright, Ryan Mosley, Celeste Rapone, Hurvin Anderson, Jack Burton, Ian Davis, Svenja Deininger, Holly Hendry, John Houck, Aliza Nisenbaum, Conrad Shawcross, Leon Kossoff, Tal R, Paula Rego, Euan Uglow & Kaari Upson

Stains on a Decade

Group Show

Frieze New York  at Josh Lilley,presenting Brian Bress

Frieze New York

Solo Show

Fun House at Josh Lilley,presenting Derek Fordjour, Brian Bress, Nicholas Hatfull, Alake Shilling, Genevieve Gaignard, Farah Atassi, Sayre Gomez & John Seal

Fun House

Group Show

Another Fine Mess at Josh Lilley,presenting Brian Bress

Another Fine Mess

Solo Show