Artworks - Brett

Brett, a British national was born in Tawau, Malaysia in 1962 and studied at Eastbourne College. Around 1976 Brett first met and was inspired by David Hockney. He studied and worked as a handmade picture framer for many years and was taught the craft of sculpting in wood and guilding by Antonio di Medido. In 1983 he won first prize and a one man show in San Francisco’s “Union Gallery”. Following this success Brett moved back to London where he successfully worked amongst David Hockney, Francis Bacon and Gilbert and George. Brett had a successful solo exhibition at the Martinez Hotel during the Cannes Film Festival in 1985. Always determined to extend his skills, Brett went on to study marble sculpture in Italy and etching in Paris during which time he was the recipient of several art prizes. Brett was a guest lecturer art teacher at Beaux-Art for Anatomy and undertook commissions of portraiture in both oil and marble, from both sides of the Atlantic. One of his well known collections entitled “To anyone who cares”, was shown at the Hampshire Gallery, London, in 1989. By 1992, Brett was living in Venice, France and was head teacher at the VAAS Foundation, former studio of Jean Dubuffet. Brett has completed commissions for Billabong and other Australian companies He created an art school in France, where he worked on a large triptych “Hidden Agenda” and a portrait of Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach, amongst other celebrity portraits. In 2002, Brett opened his own gallery in France and soon after, won the “Not the Turner Prize” competition at the Mall Gallery in London. In 2006 he moved to Thailand to concentrate on painting, and has since had many exhibitions all over the world. In 2007, he started to create a history of art series by taking everyday ordinary object and make them extraordinary. His new body of work includes a series of chrome ultra mixer and kitchen pot as well as a collection of hand painted and witty fiberglass sculptures. He was pondering the fine line between kitsch and art. Thus in his new series, the idea is to take the kitsch object to the point of art at the same time creating a diversion by placing the work of great masters on the object that is totally out of context to the paintings.