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Starsky Brines' paintings and drawings captivate audiences with their distinctive style and recurring theme, the search for the nature of humanity.

STARSKY BRINES - Artists - JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY

Biography

S T A R S K Y  B R I N E S    | | |   biography 

[lives & works – Miami, FL ::: born 1977 – Maturin, Venezuela]

 

STARSKY BRINE’s paintings and drawings captivate audiences with their distinctive style and a recurring theme, the search for the nature of humanity. In his bold works, the artist focuses on characters that are built from a combination of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic features, as well as the appropriation of elements from comics and toys from his childhood.

 

On the one hand, these characters distort reality to venture into an environment of subcultures and urbanism created by the spontaneous intuition of his strokes and the appropriation of the contemporary iconography. On the other hand, they move within the realm of fantasy. In particular, the animals paired with their human characters evoke associations with fairy tales or comics. They are reminiscent of the world of theatre, in which fantasy and poetry but also comedy often serve as catalysts for the creation of critical meaning.

 

With his works, Brines often questions the interplay of good and evil against the background of the worldwide socio-political climate. Yet Brines does not interpret his themes as ‘black and white.’ They are complex and nonlinear, with charming disruptions, quite serious and yet full of humor.

 

Brines is personally influenced by his mother and art historically influenced by Latin American figurative art, the German Neoexpressionism, the Italian Transavantgarde, and the COBRA group. His works oscillate between figuration and abstraction. Brines holds a degree in Fine Art from the Instituto Universitario de Estudios Superiores de Artes Plásticas Armando Reverón in Caracas.

 

His work has received international attention in exhibitions and has been incorporated into important collections in cities such as Caracas, Basel, Buenos Aires, Bogota, Santander, Miami, Madrid and Seoul.

Artist Statement

The presence of the animal in my work has a dual purpose: on the one hand, it represents the fury, savagery, and chaos in the human perception of the natural world; on the other hand, it represents the idea of an essence and a sacred presence that unites, like a link, two worlds that are supposedly divorced from one another while also reinforcing a sense of separation from nature.

 

My paintings deal with my questions surrounding the timeless relationship and connections we maintain with the animal world. With humor and curiosity, I have created a universe where the edges are unnecessary and where we are a single consciousness immersed in this reality. It excites me to play with the idea of animality and its iconography, which is so prevalent in human culture from sacred texts of heroes who faced beasts, to fairy tales, and even to contemporary expressions of animal imagery on TV and movie screens. It is apparent, from these ever-present expressions of animal imagery, that we have failed to integrate.

 

The current moment pushes us to look at that which is hidden and invites us to look at ourselves, so that we may begin to understand that this separation from the animal is not the truth, that our connection with this “other reality” that is wild and sacred and archetypal, is present in every corner of our culture and that, in moments of vulnerability, we remember more easily what is essential to us. My paintings are nothing more than an affirmation of myself, of my call to realize that beyond portraying the world, my obsession has always been to see myself and to build the bridges needed to see myself in others.

 

For years, I have been playing with those ideas from different angles, particularly drawing on my life spent in a city like Caracas and my memories of its wildness and the violence, savagery, and chaos in this city. For me, it was a lesson and a beautiful opportunity to take advantage of that primary pulse that never abandoned me and to turn that pulse into a visceral, spontaneous, and unrestricted relationship with painting. Now, in this moment of survival and vulnerability, caused by the pandemic and by my status as an immigrant, it is still pertinent to evoke our natural strength and, like an alchemist, to transform, play, express, and feel that which is both inside and outside oneself in order to build these hybrid and promiscuous images that heal and quiet my being.

 

Each work appeared spontaneously, moved by the pulse of each action to paint in connection with me, in introspection, without closing myself off to what I see in this new reality that I am living in these Mayan streets, full of multi-lingual conversations, which, more than images, give me sensations to take up the brush. While things were happening outside and continue to happen, news of losses and healings, this set of works was being built daily, patiently, only with the pretense of doing what I love, filling the fabrics with images, playing with them and their senses, knowing that they tell us of strange and unlikely experiences or, at least, that’s what I was accustomed to think…

 

My paintings are the result of successes and failures, of failed attempts, of frenzied chaos, of not knowing and of embracing, for a while, the uncertainty that has sheltered us in order to awaken our essential, wild, sublime, and sacred animal that inhabits the creative energy that each being carries with them.

STARSKY BRINES - Artists - JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY

Curriculum Vitae

 

EDUCATION

2005   Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting. University Institute of Advanced Studies of Plastic Arts Armando Reverón (IUESAPAR), Caracas, Venezuela

2008   Diploma, History of Western Art. Metropolitan University and the Center for Latin American Studios Arturo Uslar Pietri, Caracas, Venezuela

 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023   VANISHING rendezvous with the animal. Visu Contemporary Gallery. Miami Beach. USA. 

2022   Centro de Shanghai. Fibre. Shanghai, China. 

2021   Viceversa. Estampa. Feria de arte contemporáneo. Cerquone Gallery/ Heike Strelow Gallery. Madrid, Spain. 

           Outside of myself / Fuera de mi mismo. Jonathan Ferrara Gallery. New Orleans. USA. 

2019   Againts the Ropes. Arts Palm Beach. GBG Arts Miami. West Palm Beach, Florida. USA. 

           Entre una cosa y la otra. Café Boulud. The Brazilian Court. Palm Beach. Florida. USA. 

           Dibujhatos correspondencia. S. Brines – J. Vivenes. Galería Spazio Zero, Caracas, Venezuela. 

           Unexpected. Jonathan Ferrara Gallery. New Orleans. USA. 

2018   Paraíso Perdido, Galerie Heike Strelow, Frankfurt, Germany

           The Circus of Beauty, G-Gallery, Seoul, South Korea

2017   Solos, Galería Fernando Pradilla, Madrid, Spain

2015   Personajes Extraños, Mariana Monteagudo & Starsky Brines, Galería El Museo, Bogota, Colombia

           El Papel del Dibujo, Galería GBG Arts, Caracas, Venezuela

2013   Stranger than Banana, Gallery Zandari, Seoul, South Korea

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023    Volta New York. Heike Strelow Galerie. New York, USA.

            Art Karlsruhe. Heike Strelow Galerie. Baden-Wuettenberg, Germany.

            UVNT Art Fair 2023. Heike Strelow Galerie. Madrid. Spain.

2022    Luxembourg International. Heike Strelow Galerie. Luxembourg. Luxembourg.

            Paper Positions Berlin + Positions Berlin Art . Heike Strelow Galerie. Berlin. Germany

            Starsky Brines | Hendrik Zimmer In Dialogue. Cerquone Gallery/ Heike Strelow Gallery. Madrid, Spain.

            Starsky Brines | Hendrik Zimmer In Dialogue. Heike Strelow Galerie. Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

            Enter Art Fair. Heike Strelow Galerie. Copenhagen. Denmark

            Art Market San Francisco. Jonathan Ferrara Gallery. San Francisco. USA.

            Art Busan. G.Gallery. Seoul, South Korea.

            UVNT Art Fair 2022. Heike Strelow Galerie. Madrid. Spain.

2021    Art Miami. Jonathan Ferrara Gallery. Miami. USA.

            ART021. GGallery. Shanghai. China.

            DAEGU ART FAIR. Gallery. Seoul. South Korea.

            DNA Shenzhen 2021 Desing and Art Fair. GGalley. Shenzhen. China.

            Volta Basel. Heike Strelow Galerie. Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

            Paper Positions Berlin + Positions Berlin Art. Heike Strelow Galerie. Berlin. Germany.

            SP-Arte 365. Galería El Museo. Sao Paulo, Brazil.

            Pintura Inmortal 3. Galería El Museo, Bogotá, Colombia.

2020    Art Miami. Artsy Online Exclusive . Jonathan Ferrara Gallery. Miami. USA.
 
            Paradise in Transition . Heike Strelow Galerie. Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

            Lenguajes en papel. Galería El Museo, Bogotá, Colombia.

2019    FOR NOW. Contemporary Venezuelan Art of the Miami Diaspora. Coral Gables Museum. Coral Gables. Florida. USA.

            Paper Selections. Heike Strelow Galerie. Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

            Pinta Miami, Galería Fernando Pradilla. Miami, USA.

            Paper Positions Frankfurt. Heike Strelow Galerie. Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

            Korean International Art Fair (KIAF). G.Gallery. Seoul. South Korea.

            La Luz de Venezuela. Heike Strelow Galerie. Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

            Volta Basel. Heike Strelow Galerie. Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

            Art Busan. G.Gallery. Seoul. South Korea

            Pintura Inmortal 2. Galería El Museo, Bogotá, Colombia.

            Lenguajes en papel. Galería El Museo, Bogotá, Colombia.

2018    Pinta Miami, Galería Fernando Pradilla. Miami, USA.

            Pulse Miami Contemporary Art Fair. Heike Strelow Galerie. Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

            Positions Art Fair Berlin. Heike Strelow Galerie. Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

            Korean International Art Fair (KIAF). G.Gallery. Seoul. South Korea

            Volta Basel. Heike Strelow Galerie. Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

            Color.es. Galería Fernando Pradilla. Madrid, Spain.

            Drawing Now Art Fair. Heike Strelow Galerie. Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

            Art Busan. G.Gallery. Seoul. South Korea

            Volta NY Art Fair. Heike Strelow Galerie. Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

            London Art Fair. Heike Strelow Galerie. Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

2017    Pulse Miami Contemporary Art Fair . Heike Strelow Galerie. Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

            Korean International Art Fair (KIAF). G.Gallery. Seoul. South Korea

            Expressive Gestures, Galerie Heiki Strewlo, Frankfurt, Germany

            Pintura Pintura Pintura. Por: Víctor Zarza, Espacio Proyectos, Galería Fernando Pradilla, Madrid, Spain

2015    Lugar de gracias. El Paisaje en la Colección Mercantil, Galería “Braulio Salazar,” Valencia, Venezuela

            Art Motion, curated by Sala Mendoza, New York, USA

2014    Panorámica: Arte Emergente en Venezuela de 200-2012, Sala Tac., Caracas, Venezuela

            Gráfia Mercantil: Indagación y seguimiento, Espacio Mercantil, Caracas, Venezuela

            Art Stage Singapore, Marina Sands Expo and Convention, Singapore

 

AWARDS

2013   Omar Carreño Young Artist Prize, College of Architects of Venezuela

2010   Young AVAP Award, Venezuelan Association of Plastic Artists

2005   Second Prize, VIII Salon Cantc Young people with FIA: Open Looks

2004   Grand Prix Juan Lovera, XXIII Painting Exhibition, Ateneo de Carúpano

2003   Honorific mention. XXIII Painting Exhibition, Ateneo de Carú pano

           Best Painting Award, VII Regional Exhibition of Young Artists, Puerto La Cruz

 

COLLECTIONS

Beth Rudin DeWoody. EE.UU.

Koo House Museum. Seoul. South Korea.

BURGER collection. Zurich, Switzerland.

Mondrian Hotel. Seoul. South Korea.

Ashley Longshore. EE.UU.

Hee Jae Kang. Seoul. South Korea.

Sander Sammlung Collection. Darmstadt. Germany.

Museo Nacional de China. Beijing. China.

Colección Mercantil, Caracas- Venezuela.

MAAA. Museo Acarigua- Araure. Venezuela.