Art Mediums: vinyl emulsion on canvas

Brian Sanchez is a Seattle-based, Multi-disciplinary artist. He is known for his playful compositions that experiment with line, shape, form, and color in various mediums. Incorporating painting, photography, sculpture, and installation into his practice, Sanchez adopts a vibrant palette to create his narrative mode—one that plays with contrasting compositional elements, including light, shadow, surface, and space. He has exhibited his work in Seattle, Portland, Washington DC, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, London, and Tokyo. Sanchez lives and works in Seattle, Washington.

“My work is heavily influenced by several time periods and schools in art history, including the color field paintings of Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, and Helen Frankenthaler, and the photographic work of Robert Frank, Nan Goldin, and Josef Koudelka. These influences taught me about composition, color theory, light, the narrative within an image, and humanity. These artists—and others—helped shape who I am as an artist, and how I connect with my viewers. I want my work to welcome presentness and curiosity. Things in life that inspire and resonate with me can be as simple as a balloon shooting into the boundless sky or wind gently rustling the trees near a body of water. I find beauty and connectivity in the insignificant things that are easily overlooked.”

“Painting has taught me how to be still within myself. It’s helped me gain introspection. In my studio, there’s a range where I can go from processing information of that day to unraveling layers of deeply rooted trauma. It’s all in the work.”

“While developing a new body of work, I think about how the human psyche connects and associates specific emotions with different hues, tints, and shades of color. I consider shape, form, and line while working: how these elements interact to create a rhythm within the paintings. The paintings feel like a song or a chapter in a book to me. They’re descriptive yet relatively minimal, using subtle but direct actions, depicting simple yet complex states of being. I want the work to feel human and sentient.”

Brian Sanchez

Hernan Paganini

Raven Juarez