INFERNACELIA
Fine Art Created by Painter and Printmaker Lu Brewer
WHO IS LU BREWER?
(They/Them)
Lu Brewer is a nonbinary artist from Point Pleasant, New Jersey. They graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore with a BFA in General Fine Arts and double minored in Printmaking and Painting. Lu has received numerous awards and merit-based scholarships, such as the Mayor and Council Award for Fine Art, the Seymour Mandelbaum Merit Scholarship, and the Creative Vision Award Academic Scholarship. Their work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including but not limited to the Club Car Gallery’s Slayed, Adytum Collective’s Release the Beast, Ink, Press, Repeat: National Juried Printmaking and Book Art Exhibition, the Scholarship Donor Student Exhibition, as well as the Columbia University's No Boundaries Art Exhibition displayed in Beijing, Paris, New York, Rio de Janeiro, and Nairobi. They co-curated and featured in other shows such as: the Joyful Gauntlet Art Walk, the September Song Illustrative Print Show, the MICA Relief Print Show, and The Confessions of a Junior GFA Major Show. Lu previously educated children, teens, and adults in art for nine years, and for four of those years hosted an independent branch of summer classes at Garden State Art Studio in New Jersey. They continued their work in art education at Baltimore Clayworks as a Camp Instructor while attending M.I.C.A.. After graduation, they secured themselves a long awaited tattoo apprenticeship at Studio 7 Tattoo & Art Gallery. As of September 2024, Lu successfully completed their tattoo apprenticeship and is tattooing full time at Studio 7. They plan to conduct their tattoo career alongside their independent fine art practice and continue to participate in exhibitions and vending events.
 |  |  |  |
|---|
ARTIST STATEMENT
By Lu Brewer
Through my painting and printmaking practice I explore the intricacies of human behavior and medical anxieties leading up to and after death. I conceal my exploration within the visual languages of medical phenomena, invasive surgeries, bodily injury, Judeo-Christian myth, ancient burial rituals, archaeological findings, osteology, and the macabre.
Since my first encounter with the grim and ghastly, I was fascinated, captivated, and comforted. After the loss of my father at the age of five, I was drawn to dark imagery as a way to express my hypersensitive anxieties and curiosities that death left me with. The shaming of dark themes pertaining to death is a dismissive human construct, while accepting danse macabre is accepting life itself. My work aims to present a raw, genuine experience exploring the philosophy and impact of death through multiple lenses and perspectives.
My acrylic paintings are large and fluctuate from loose painterly styles to crisp fine tuned rendering. I utilize illuminating glazing techniques alongside dry brushing to achieve most of my images. As a maximalist, I am unafraid of complex detail and vivacious color with high contrasts. My compositions embrace the loud, intrusive, and unapologetic. I have experience in linocut, copper etching, woodblock carving, screenprinting, as well as occasionally employing chine-colle, reduction techniques, and hand coloring. My prints are imbued with my own honest, dark, and expressive mark making as I meditate over my work. However, they speak differently than my paintings. My paintings display the pain and conflict of death and bodily injury. Yet, my prints accept death fully and thrive in their relief.
I allow myself a vast array of imagery to experiment with. My biggest inspiration in my painting practice at the moment is extreme body modification as well as injuries sustained from participating in alternative catharses such as mosh pits. These works analyze the conflict between the aesthetic and culture driven human mind and the laborious process of healing the physical body. I am also fueled by scientific and archaeological findings like vintage medical photography, Europe's preserved bog bodies, Inca skulls with surgical markings proving successful brain surgeries since 1400 A.D., and extreme cases of parasitic infection. I am also very drawn to the dark side of Judeo-Christian myth and literature such as Dante’s Inferno, the Book of Revelation, and the symbolic deaths of saints. In my print practice I am fond of using images of skeletal remains from humans and animals in nature due to their transcendent narrative qualities, not to mention the historical ties to Memento Mori this imagery holds.
My work confronts the threshold in the human mind that causes us to withdraw from the things we classify as macabre. The timelessness of the questions my work poses suggests there will never be a way to permanently pacify these nagging inquiries. However, building something out of what you once recoiled from is a way to study it, understand it, and with each work I create I feel the slightest bit closer to a breakthrough.
ARTIST CV
Lu Brewer (They/Them)
EDUCATION
2023 BFA Graduate in General Fine Arts and minored in Printmaking and Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2023-Present Tattoo Artist at Studio 7 Tattoo & Art Gallery
Consults and tattoos clients by appointment as well as takes walk-ins when applicable. Other responsibilities include accepting calls, organizing flash events, maintaining a clean booth, taking inventory, and restocking supplies.
2022-2023 Art Instructor at Baltimore Clayworks Inc.
Educated children ages six to twelve in clay handbuilding. Other responsibilities included reclaiming clay and maintaining a clean studio environment.
​
2014-2021 Art Instructor at Garden State Art Studio, Brick, NJ.
​
Educated children, teens, and adults in various mediums, as well as built their own branch of summer classes for four years.
​
EXHIBITIONS & VENDING EVENTS
2024 World Oddities Exposition, The Convention Center, Baltimore, MD.
2024 Macabre Menagerie Of Mysteries, The Ottobar, Baltimore, MD.
2024 Slayed, The Car Club Gallery, Baltimore, MD.
2024 Buzz of the Bizarre, Charm City Meadworks, Baltimore, MD.
2023 Release the Beast, Adytum Collective, Vision House, Baltimore, MD.
2023 Home, Adytum Collective, Beethoven Apartments, Baltimore, MD.
2023 Fire & Ice, Adytum Collective, Beethoven Apartments, Baltimore, MD.
2023 Artwalk, Fox 2 & Fox 3, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
2023 Ink, Press, Repeat: National Juried Printmaking and Book Art Exhibition, South Gallery, William Paterson, University, Wayne, NJ.
2022 Highlights of Thesis, Alvin and Louise Myerberg Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
​
2022 We Are Everywhere, Fox 2 Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
2022 Preface, France-Merrick Foundation Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
2022 Print & Proof, 15/15 Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
​
2022 Wiggle Room, France-Merrick Foundation Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
​
2022 Confessions of a Junior GFA Major, France-Merrick Foundation Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art , Baltimore, MD.
​
2022 Relief Print Exhibition, 15/15 Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
​
2021 Junior Painting Independent Exhibition, France-Merrick Foundation Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
2021 Seance, Fox 3 Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
2021 September Song Illustrative Print Show, 15/15 Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
​
2020 Personal Directions Exhibition, Fox 2 Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
2019 Joyful Gauntlet Art Walk, Maine Building, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
2019 Scholarship Donor Student Exhibition, Mosher Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
​
2018 No Boundaries Art Exhibition, Columbia University Global Centers, Beijing, Paris, New York, Rio de Janeiro, and Nairobi.
AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIPS
​
2018-2023 Dean's list, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
​
2020 Creative Vision Award, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
​
2020 Academic Honors Scholarship, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
2020 General Fine Arts Departmental Recognition Award, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
​
2019 Seymour Mandelbaum Merit Scholarship, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
2019 Foundation Departmental Recognition Award, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
2018 Mayor and Council Award for Fine Art, Mayor and Council of Point Pleasant, NJ.