Phyllis Bramson

Phyllis Bramson
Born1941 (age 82–83)
Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.
EducationSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Illinois, Urbana
OccupationArtist
Known forPainting
StyleFigurative, postmodern
WebsitePhyllis Bramson

Phyllis Bramson (born 1941) is an American artist, based in Chicago and known for "richly ornamental, excessive and decadent" paintings[1] described as walking a tightrope between "edginess and eroticism."[2] She combines eclectic influences, such as kitsch culture, Rococo art and Orientalism, in juxtapositions of fantastical figures, decorative patterns and objects, and pastoral landscapes that affirm the pleasures and follies of romantic desire, imagination and looking.[3][4][5][6] Bramson shares tendencies with the Chicago Imagists and broader Chicago tradition of surreal representation in her use of expressionist figuration, vernacular culture, bright color, and sexual imagery.[1][7] Curator Lynne Warren wrote of her 30-year retrospective at the Chicago Cultural Center, "Bramson passionately paints from her center, so uniquely shaped in her formative years […] her lovely colors, fluttery, vignette compositions, and flowery and cartoony imagery create works that are really like no one else's.[4] Writer Miranda McClintic said that Bramson's works "incorporate the passionate complexity of eastern mythology, the sexual innuendos of soap operas and sometimes the happy endings of cartoons."[8]

Bramson's work has been exhibited in exhibitions and surveys at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (MCA), the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian Institution, and Corcoran Gallery of Art.[9] In more than forty one-person exhibitions, she has shown at the New Museum, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Boulder Art Museum, University of West Virginia Museum, and numerous galleries.[10][11] She has been widely reviewed[12][13] and recognized with John S. Guggenheim and Rockefeller foundation grants and the Anonymous Was A Woman Award, among others.[14] She was one of the founding members of the early women's art collaborative Artemisia Gallery and a long-time professor at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago, until retiring in 2007.[15]

Phyllis Bramson, The Good Keeper of All Living Things, mixed media on canvas, 60" × 70", 2016.
  1. ^ a b Wainwright, Lisa. "Phyllis Bramson," Women's Caucus for Art Honor Awards 2014, New York: Women's Caucus for Art, 2014.
  2. ^ Johnson, Carrie. "Introduction," Phyllis Bramson: In Praise of Folly, A Retrospective 1985–2015, Exhibition catalogue, Rockford, IL: Rockford Art Museum, 2015. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  3. ^ Orendorff, Danny. "Anything Goes: Freedom, Fetish, and Phyllis Bramson," Phyllis Bramson: In Praise of Folly, A Retrospective 1985–2015, Exhibition catalogue, Rockford, IL: Rockford Art Museum, 2015. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  4. ^ a b Warren, Lynne. "Welcome to the Pleasure Dome," Phyllis Bramson, Under the Pleasure Dome: A Survey, Exhibition catalogue, Chicago: Chicago Cultural Center, 2016. p. 4. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
  5. ^ Plagens, Peter. "Beauty and Style on the Outside, Charm Within," The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 14, 2013, p. A22.
  6. ^ Yood, James. "The Return of the Rococo," Exhibition catalogue, Kenosha, WI, H.F. Johnson Gallery of Art, Carthage College. 2013, p. 8–11.
  7. ^ Warren, Lynne. "Phyllis Bramson," Art in Chicago 1945-1995. Museum of Contemporary Art, ed. Lynne Warren, New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996, p. 245. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  8. ^ McClintic, Miranda. "What F Word," Catalogue, New York: Cynthia Broan Gallery, 2007.
  9. ^ Sultan, Terrie. "43rd Biennial of Contemporary American Painting," Exhibition catalogue, Washington, DC: Corcoran Museum of Art, 1994, p. 2.
  10. ^ Phyllis Bramson official website. Phyllis Bramson CV, Retrieved May 25, 2018.
  11. ^ Baratta, Kate. "Artist of the Week: Phyllis Bramson," Chicago Woman, June 27, 2016. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
  12. ^ Russell, John. "Phyllis Bramson at Monique Knowlton," New York Times, March 12, 1982.
  13. ^ Pincus, Robert L. "Putting themselves into the real picture," Los Angeles Times, Part V, Feb. 2, 1985, p. 3.
  14. ^ Chicago Cultural Center. Phyllis Bramson, Under the Pleasure Dome: A Survey, Exhibition catalogue, Chicago: Chicago Cultural Center, 2016. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
  15. ^ Seaman, Donna. (February 28, 1999)."A Collaborative Art," Chicago Tribune. Retrieved February 22, 2018.