ABOUT BRIAN GLECKMAN
Brian Gleckman was born and raised in Los Angeles. Growing up with world class art museums and countless independent galleries in Southern California, Brian trained at California State University. There, he studied Baroque and Rococo art history, but was inspired in the studio by the energy and tension of Fauvism, Abstract Expressionism, and Minimalism. After living in Montreal, Victoria, and Edmonton, Brian has long been based in Vancouver, British Columbia, where, while continuing to work in the studio, he taught drawing, painting, and photography for thirty years.
Brian’s artistic progression of focus can be traced to his monochromatic examinations of positive and negative space. Limiting his palette to black and white, Brian explored the visual relationship between objects portrayed in silhouette and the space they occupied. Subsequently turning his attention to the structure of printed letters, Brian eventually sought to consider the visual and compositional potential of abstracted shapes. In these explorations, Brian sought to approach the boundaries of visual comprehension and recognition.
After working for more than a decade with the concomitant simplicity and challenge of black and white, Brian returned to the use of colour in his work. His abstractions continued to explore spatial relationships, but with the inclusion of colour, his paintings added a more subjective, interpretive, and emotional interaction with the elements of shape, movement, and visual (as opposed to tactile) texture.
Brian’s most recent body of work could be characterized as a synthesis of abstract expressionism and colour field exploration. Working with varying degrees of (often) understated and generally monochromatic colour schemes, Brian’s canvases convey a directness and a physicality that hint at a range of visual and conceptual enquiries; to this point, his compositions frequently include borders that articulate space as a set of boundaries. Brian employs those boundaries as a vehicle for highlighting that which exists within, while functioning as contrasts to the contexts of what exists without. Given either the visual cohesion of his fields with their borders, or the contrast that is portrayed between them, Brian’s paintings are visual metaphors for questions pertaining to knowledge and perception in physical realms, and their relationship with those more ethereal and uncertain.
His work being collected in Canada and the United States, Brian is designated an Exhibiting Member of the Federation of Canadian Artists.
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Exhibitions
2025 Group Exhibition, SMALLS Exhibition, Eastside Atelier, Vancouver, BC
Group Exhibition, My Heritage, Langley Arts Council Gallery, Aldergrove, BC
Group Exhibition, First Saturday Open Studios, Eastside Atelier, Vancouver, BC
2024 Solo Exhibition, Abstracted Identity, Zack Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Group Exhibition, October Canvas, The Gallery George, Vancouver, BC
Group Exhibition, The Mind of an Artist, Monic Reyes Arte (online)
Group Exhibition, Memory and Hope, Shalom Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2023 Group Exhibition, 37th Anniversary Exhibition, Art Works Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2002 Solo Exhibition, Featured Artist, Port Coquitlam City Hall Gallery, Port Coquitlam, BC
2000 Group Exhibition, Vernissage for All, Port Moody Arts Centre, Port Moody, BC
1999 Group Exhibition, Vernissage for All, Port Moody Arts Centre, Port Moody, BC
Group Exhibition, Innovations ‘99, Regional Art Exhibition, Coquitlam, BC
1996 Group Exhibition, Vernissage for All, Port Moody Arts Centre, Port Moody, BC
1994 Solo Exhibition, Art Flow, Regional Art Exhibition, Coquitlam, BC
Group Exhibition, Images and Objects, Regional Art Exhibition, Coquitlam, BC​
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Artist Statement
My art is the product of a sensibility borne from my cultural identity, extensive study of art history, and an original application of visual interpretation. Inspired early in my career by the works of Rubens, El Greco, Soutine, Kline, and Rothko, my current oeuvre might best be characterized as a tangential synthesis of abstract expressionism and colour field minimalism: in one sense, there is an unequivocal directness in my compositions, while in another, there is subtlety, simplicity, and calm. Holding that these energies needn’t be mutually exclusive, the visual and conceptual essence of my work is a focus on spatial relationships.
In my most recent body of work, I seek to explore the expressive potential of confined space. Not only am I interested in how we respond to that which is “within,” in contrast to that which is “outside,” I also want to highlight a conceptual uncertainty and emotional tension that often results from that contrast. To that end, my compositions feature framed areas within a frame, using the inner field to juxtapose the viewer’s experience with an awareness that something more might exist beyond. Recognizing that one field functions as context for the other, these paintings are visual metaphors for the relationship between our senses and those things that exist in more ethereal realms.
My process of creating involves marrying intent with improvisation, approaching my canvases with clarity as to what I want to accomplish and express, yet allowing for and welcoming degrees of the unexpected. Embracing this process, I often build on opportunities posed by spontaneity to sometimes direct, and at other times flesh out, the development of my work and the articulation of my vision. In this, the process is a constant back-and-forth between the pre-conceived and the organic.
Many of my paintings employ understated or monochromatic colour schemes, while at other times I limit myself to the use of neutrals. Choosing to work with colour or neutrals, my palette serves the purpose of giving thought out language to composition. To a similar point, my paintings are often infused with the suggestion of ambiguous depth, a result that comes about through layering, playing with varying degrees of opacity, and the textural effects of my brushwork. In many of my paintings, there is push and pull of movement and a deliberate inclusion of visual tension. That tension is often the product of compositional framing, placement of shapes, and playing with edges and borders.
Together, these ideas and approaches serve to prompt a re-conceptualization of visual spaces and the relationships that result and exist within. As with art in every form and medium, the end goal of my work is to engage the viewer in contemplation and dialogue.
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For information regarding purchases and/or commissions, contact Brian directly at briangleckman@gmail.com.
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