Brett Reichman's highly detailed, labor-intensive approach to realism addresses the complexities of identity politics. Through the post-modern staging of the figure in performative situations with objects, he questions societal norms by constructing images of exaggeration and artifice. This inquiry into the politics of gay culture critiques political correctness and cultural assimilation through images that convey an amplified visibility and difference. Meticulous paintings of rainbow colored fabric reference the history of fabric and folds in painting as high artifice while placing this study within a contemporary discourse of exaggeration and camp. By resourcing both found and fabricated objects and painting them from direct observation, Reichman considers the still life object as both visual and signifying and the still life arrangement as a narrative that is simultaneously real and fictive.

Biography - Reviews