Lee Brogan

Lee Brogan
Kerikeri, New Zealand

STATEMENT

I am influenced by both surrealism, primitivism, and abstract expressionism. My work has primarily focussed on topics that motivate me (with environmental and political hegemony high on my agenda) and is strongly conceptual in nature. I have used original artefacts from WWII to make several anti-war bodies of work over the last 15 years which have been exhibited internationally. My collage work is essentially abstract, as although there is no initial conceptual direction, by free association of images the work evolves over time and connections present themselves until the piece emerges as a whole. I often use analogue collage as a starting point, with individual works morphing through digital manipulation, or taken into the printmaking field, or used to create sculptural works. I also use my own photographic material to create collage and printmaking, so my work is cyclical, rotating through various methodologies until a finished piece is revealed. My latest body of work has been in large scale digital printmaking and abstract video installations.

BIO

I started in the commercial art industry over 30 years ago in Auckland, and have been a self-employed professional graphic designer and publisher since leaving the city 25 years ago to live an off-grid sustainable lifestyle- firstly on a yacht for several years and then land-based, currently from my home in the sub-tropical rural far north of New Zealand. I have a BA (Applied Art), and was the winner of New Zealand’s Aspiring Art Awards: Best Artwork Under $1000 in 2015, and the Molly Morpeth Canaday Glass Award in 2008. I have also been a four-time finalist in the country’s most prestigious art awards–the Wallace Art Awards and twice in the New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Awards, as well as a four-time finalist in the Australasian Ranamok Glass Awards. I have featured in “Kiwi Consciousness. Contemporary Artists from New Zealand” 2017, “Craft Arts International” 2012 & 2015, “New Zealand Glass Art” 2010, “Looking Glass: Reflecting Ideas” 2009 and “New Glass Review 30”, 2009, Corning Museum of Glass, New York, USA. I have exhibited both nationally and internationally, in both solo and group shows and my work is held in both private and public collections.

Since moving off-grid in 2011 I have constantly been evolving my art practice to reflect my desire for a more low tech, sustainable, zero waste, non-toxic lifestyle embracing collage (analogue and digital, 2D, 3D and installation), printmaking, book-making, photography and video.

ARTIST CONTACT

[click to email]
www.leebrogan.com

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