Brent Ridge

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Biography & Artist Statement

When people ask me where I’m from, I enjoy viewing their expression as I tell them, Flint, Michigan. This is always followed by a sympathetic response. Being from the epicenter of the Rust Belt and watching the continued disintegration of the American Industrial Age has had a profound effect on my art.

My great-grandfather was a welder for General Motors, during the famous sit-down strike of 1937. Two generations later, my father went to the now-defunct General Motors Institute to become an engineer. During trips back home, driving by boarded-up houses, shuttered businesses, and ghostly factories, I wonder what has changed since my last visit and what will change before the next. I use the collected imagery to communicate these feelings of abandonment. Grounding my art in the area’s great history of industry, I have taken to studying the workers and designers that fueled the factories of Flint and made the town a piece of Americana.

My art emulates that industry. Combing mechanical processes with painting inspires me. Even as a child, I used my father’s old tools from his studies at General Motors Institute to make art. Using a process of stenciled reproduction, I make new meaning out of discarded objects, iconic images, and found ephemera. My style combines manual labor and mechanical precision to manufacture a unique object.

Curriculum Vitae

Education

• 1998 - B.F.A. in Studio Art, cum laude, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan

Selected Solo/Dual Exhibitions

• 2008 - Road to Nowhere, V&A, New York, NY
• 2007 - Jean-Baptiste Bouvier—Brent Ridge, V&A, New York, New York

Selected Group Exhibitions

• 2008 - BAMart silent auction, BAM, Brooklyn, New York
• 2007 - ArtCologne, V&A exhibiting with Markus Winter, Cologne, Germany
• 2007 - A Cloudy Day’s Epiphany, DinterFineArt, New York, New York
• 2007 - Art as Anecdote, Brooklyn Arts Council Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
• 2007 - The Impermanent Collection IV, Temporary Museum of Painting, Brooklyn, New York
• 2006 - The Square, Temporary Museum of Painting, Brooklyn, New York
• 2006 - Le Show, V&A, New York, New York
• 2006 - The Impermanent Collection III, Temporary Museum of Painting, Brooklyn, New York
• 2006 - Open for Business, V&A, New York, New York
• 2005 - Perogi Flatfiles, Perogi 2000, Brooklyn, New York
• 2005 - The Impermanent Collection, Temporary Museum of Painting, Brooklyn, New York
• 2004 - Bulletproof, Spire Studios, Beacon, New York
• 2001 - Self, Art & Space, LexArt Studio, New York, New York

Permanent Collections

• Flint Public Library, Flint, Michigan

Selected Awards

• 1998 - Henrickson Award: Best Outgoing Senior Painter, Michigan State University
• 1997 - Calder Award: Most Outstanding Junior Artist, Michigan State University
• 1994 - Young Artists Today: best of Show, Flint Public Library, Flint, Michigan

Publications

• Flavorpill Issue #387, Online Visual Arts Review, Joel Withrow, April, 2007
• Artinfo.com, The Ai Eye: Editor’s Pick of Art for Sale in Chicago & New York, March 14, 2007
• Wagmag: Monthly Art Guide, Reviews: “The Square,” James Kalm, January 8, 2007