Brent Houzenga

Brent Houzenga Remixes Remains In Chicago

September 7, 2011 Artists, Chicago, Gallery, On the Street

The Victorian era has been gently affecting the instrumentation and arrangement of art bands and the fashions of shabby chic sections of Bohemia since the steam punks started wearing dog-eared top hats and ruffles in the late 1990s and the ripples of this romance continues to gather into vaporous clouds in these early 10’s.

Brent Houzenga (photo © Brock Brake)

Street Artist Brent Houzenga fell under a deep sepia spell when he stumbled across a box of vintage 1890s photographs in the trash and for the last couple of years he’s been scheming on how to bring these anonymous individuals back to life on the street. Billing himself as “The Hybrid Pioneer” a.k.a “The Original Prairie Pirate”, the spritely Houzenga hails from Des Moines, Iowa, and is transfixed by these faces and fashions, re-imagining these earlier travelers in a context they never saw, and in the process he creates a bridge between centuries.

Photographer and BSA contributor Brock Brake trailed Brent recently and shares these images with BSA readers.

Brent Houzenga (photo © Brock Brake)

Pieces hung in a tight salon configuration on the street. Brent Houzenga (photo © Brock Brake)

Brent Houzenga (photo © Brock Brake)

“Remixed Remains”, a current solo show at Pawn Works Gallery in Chicago by Brent Houzenga, features new works from this box of old photographs.

“We are really hyped on this guys work though he has not been very exposed within the street art world – as he is in Des Moines and sort of an outsider artist,” says Nick Marzullo of Pawn Works Gallery. Houzenga, however, could not be too much of an outsider, as he has some work in the collection of The Museum of Fine Art in Des Moines and Indianapolis, notes Marzullo, but his “installation is finally finished and the space is like nothing we’ve seen before.”

For details on “Remized Remains” click on the link below:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=24069

Pawn Works Gallery Presents: Brent Houzenga “Remixed Remains” (Chicago, ILL)

September 3, 2011 Artists, Chicago, Events, Gallery, Opening

Brent Houzenga

Five years ago, artist Brent Houzenga’s life was altered dramatically when he stumbled across a pair of antique photo albums from the 1890’s in the discarded trash of others. Since that discovery Houzenga has amassed an extensive body of work, attempting to bring these lost souls back to life through abstract painting and stencil work using vibrant colors and his own unique action painting techniques. Often displaying his subjects on re-purposed window frames suggests the antiquity of the subjects in his paintings as well as the rural and rustic background of this self-described ‘Prairie Pirate’. Working on the reverse side of the glass, painting backwards and tirelessly scraping away existing layers of paint to create new marks, Houzenga pays homage to those he renders. Many subjects remain unscathed peaking out of chaotic abstraction while others are altered entirely.

With his new show “Remixed Remains” Houzenga experiments with scrawling over the rendered photos leaving insignia and other messages for the viewer to ponder, all part of an installation transforming the space into a post punk Victorian funhouse. Remixed Remains will serve as a celebration of the painting and exhibiting over the last five years. For the artist, what once was classic is now revamped like a stolen bass line or punk cover with a little more class; splattered all over.

Brent Houzenga ‘Remixed Remains’

Opening Reception will be on Saturday September 3, 2011 from 7-10pm

Show runs until October 2.

Pawn Works | 1050 N. Damen Ave. Chicago, IL 60622

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