Observing observers is the theme for Petey Brown’s body of work. Being in the audience at Glimmerglass Opera in Upstate New York inspired the first of these paintings. After several years of isolation during the covid lockdown, being out and about fueled an incentive to respond to the spectacle. The glimpses of the audience, coupled with the artists on stage, provided fertile subject matter.
Returning to New York City and visiting treasures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney, and Frick provided more nourishment for this idea. Onlookers, who are often documenting the paintings, offer a peek at a variety of responses. Are they interested in the works, or in themselves as recorders of the experience? I get pleasure in commenting on the humor seen here as well as the opportunity to translate the beauty of the works on view.
Petey Brown earned a BFA in painting at Boston University in 1976. She has had eleven solo exhibits in Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Provincetown and in Roanoke, Virginia. She has been in numerous group shows over the years, including National Academy of Design, Baltimore Museum of Art, Fitchburg Art Museum, among others. She was in a show at Zurcher Gallery called “Eleven Women of Spirit.” Her work is included in the Library of Congress, De Cordova Museum; commissions include the Marriot Hotel in Tampa, FL and the Conrad Hotel in Uruguay and others. Her work has been reviewed in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Art New England, Newton Times, and Delicious Line. She lives in Brooklyn, works in Soho, NY and Garrattsville, NY.