Thanks to the sheer
expansive breadth of human trauma as well as earthy delight that can be found in her
work, Brown has rapidly risen to become one
of the most sought after painters in the world.
The
breadth of the exhibition — chronologically and stylistically — is illustrated when comparing a
work such as Greene's # 10 (1935), composed
of densely layered papers on a small scale in a variety
of textures, shapes, and palette
of muted hues, to Vicente's Untitled (1980), the
expansive picture plane dominated by emphatic vertical and horizontal linear forms in deep greens, purples, and reds.
Together, the contributing essays make a strong contextual case for O'Brien's
work that counters canonical themes
of media - specificity and traditional art materials, producing a catalogue as
expansive as the
breadth of O'Brien's practice itself.