Artist Statement
As a visual artist, I suffer this intense desire for my artwork be its own statement. While that sounds like a bit of a cop-out, I do honestly struggle with finding the right words. Rather than try to (and fail) explain too much of the whys and wherefores, maybe I can offer some insights into what I’m doing and invite you to take it from there.
I am endlessly fascinated by people. I love people. I have a tendency to stare at strangers and peek into windows. I’m nosy and curious.
My current body of work is concerned with multi-faceted moments of the human experience through portraiture and still life. Lately, I’ve found myself dwelling especially on the politics of permission.
Paintings are like the windows I like to peek into. Sometimes we are gawking into the hazy, fleeting beats of being— times of revelry, excess, and heightened emotion. Other times we are uninvited voyeurs interrupting a moment of serenity and introspection. Moments. We make up our own stories for the befores and afters.
I am first and foremost a painter. While in the past I had explored visual expression through a variety of vehicles including mixed media and collage, I have returned home and to the resonance found in the immediacy of painting.
ARTIST BIO
Bree Chapin is a painter and visual artist based between New York City and Lisbon. Since the beginning Bree was interested in art and music—visual art was always her most natural form of expression. She began sharing her work publicly in the Lower East Side art scene in the early 201xs.
Bree’s work has been exhibited regularly for over a decade in New York and beyond (exhibition list). In 2023 Bree moved her primary studio from East Harlem to Lisbon Portugal, and balances her time between these two vibrant capitals. Her pieces are included in several private collections around the world.
She has also built a reputation as a creative and competent curator, organizer, and producer of art events (CV).
Some Have Asked… Why Pink?
My body of work from 2021-2024 is known for suggestive imagery and delirious all-pink palette. I have spent over 10 years creating art in an ever-brighter, more electric, and smaller range of hues. In 2021, I found myself hyper-focused on this single color, forsaking all others. Why pink? There are so many reasons… conscious and otherwise. Pink is at once loud and aggressive yet hazy and dreamy. It’s punk rock and strawberry shortcake. It’s “let’s be friends” and “fuck you.”
The more I used it, the more I wanted to use it. Vibrational reddish shadows and milky-pink shadows…I am increasingly compelled by the aesthetic, physical, and symbolic qualities of the color. People look at a splash of pink and form immediate opinions. There is a power in pink, a history. We lob so much baggage on this color—and it has never once cared what we think of it.