Window Dressing XVI: Brent Pheto
Exhibition Dates: January 14th - 17th, 2022, (visible 24 hours/day)
For the past two years artist Brent Pheto’s Imprinted series has been utilizing relief monoprints as a vehicle for narrative. Printmaking's replicative nature is invoked to demonstrate how the past recurs in the now. A print installation activating the entire window space, Expanded: John Punch is the artist's first dimensionally immersive piece in the series. The visual aesthetics of game design place the viewer in the position of the titular character. One must then consider the implications of the limited choices laid out before them. This exhibition is part of PrintAustin’s yearly celebration of print based artworks.
About the artist: Born in a Multiracial household in the Washington, DC metro area, Brent Pheto’s first interaction with active racism was when he was told, “I don’t want to sit next to you, you’re a nigger”, by a white girl on a school bus coming home from elementary school.His second meaningful interaction with white supremacy was when he was looking up what it meant to be Mixed Black on Yahoo and found passages from the first edition Kloran, or what’s known as the first KKK guidelines. These instances shaped Brent’s understanding of how America, and, more broadly, the world viewed him. His artistic life began to take form while playing in a punk band, where he listened and studied (or, as much as a teenager could) to bands like Black Flag, the Dead Kennedys, Rudimentary Peni, and Bad Brains.These musical influences brought on a love for the DIY ethos, as seen on the album art of the bands. Later on, while attending the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Brent explored many art mediums, as well as philosophical concepts, political and social ideologies within his work. After graduating, he moved from Boston, MA to Austin, TX, where he currently resides and continues to create art and explore concepts pertaining to American life and identity.
Work is on display continuously in the ICOSA window from January 14th-17th. 2022.
A reception for the artist will be held in the gallery on January 14th, from 7-9pm.
