Zen Browne
"I am Zen, and I am a painter. My paintings are a culmination of my personal life experiences…"
Philadelphia born artist, Zen Browne, has resided in New York City for more than 2 decades. Browne's natural artistic talents were enhanced when he studied painting at the historic Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art during the early '80s.
"I've always painted since I was young. I grew up in a large family with a father who was a commercial artist. We were all encouraged to engage our selves creatively, TV was not allowed early-on. I went to after school art programs then eventually began attending more formal art classes that were more focused on drawing and painting." In 1985 Browne relocated to Alphabet City in the East Village of New York where he became involved in the "Squatting Movement" and mounted his first solo show, "Remember Move," at the Nuyorican Poet's Café.
"I was invited by a friend to become a member of a "squat" on 13th Street, given the task of removing some 300 windows from a raw space in the building. I was told, "if you can get theses windows out of here, the space is yours," so I got them out and that space became my first live studio space."
The "Squatting Movement" of the Lower East Side consisted of 50 buildings which were occupied by a host of artists and political activists. There were accomplished musicians, writers, poets and performers living alongside revolutionary-minded activists, a prostitute, a runaway, the occasional wonderer, and a few "bums."
"There was a soup kitchen, a theater stage, and open community spaces for folks who wanted to warm-up during the winter months around a huge pot belly wood burning stove. There was no heat or hot water in the building, so everyone had their own makeshift fire place and chimney to heat their spaces. We got our electricity from the streets in those days; the lights went out quite often! Many of my paintings were created in the mystique and flickering shadows of fire light."
Zen Browne's experience as a squatter allowed for a stimulating environment, and unique platform to communicate his life through painting.
"The cast of characters, personalities, political activism, and the drama of the social climate that surrounded the 50 buildings that made up the squatting community contributed significantly to my growth as a painter, spiritually, intellectually, politically, socially, culturally… it was rich… I was rich."
Using his life experiences as fuel for vision, Zen Browne has been teaching the art of painting throughout the metropolitan area for the past 20 years. He has also taught abroad from Europe to down the Amazon. Browne draws from his personal experiences as a source for the pedagogy of his unique teaching style of painting.
"Because painting is life, and incorporating life experiences into painting is what paintings is all about… be it objective or subjective... they cannot be separated".
In 2005, Browne took his first step towards what he felt was his real and true physical life, and transitioned to male. The work on display reflects on identity and serves as a mirror by portraying transsexual men who bring their stories into an encounter with Browne's own experience. The project was begun in 2009 and is ongoing. In the future, Browne plans to create a parallel series of portraits of transsexual women.
"Over the years my paintings have explored the idea of 'searching.'"
Many of Browne's past paintings were allegorical narratives involving a seemingly lone sojourner in a "grand and expressive" natural universe that is "spiritually and ancestrally" rich. Zen's body of work entitled "Internal Landscapes" largely dealt with personal and spiritual experience. These works explored the realms of identity through visual allegory and metaphor; focusing on themes of personal journey, quest and transformation. They opened the door to the current portrait series on view.
