Kim Brewer

Most of what I make investigates social justice issues through a variety of mediums from pure painting to contemporary craft. Derived from “mug shots,” much of my work explores the relative frailty of the human condition in isolation and interrogates the mug shot as a platform for the perpetual captivity of the individual. Some individuals present themselves in defiance of their “captors,” while others are entirely consumed with their own intense set of circumstances; the varied expressions portrayed evoke images which are dynamic and often moving. The series, Alleged Shapes, is composed through paper collage, then altered digitally, and then painted in acrylic. The manipulation of the imagery from analog to digital and then digital to analog mediums supports the confrontation between the initial image and the painting. Alleged Shapes creates alternate narratives which disrupt the finality of the original image, liberate its referent, and critique the mug shot as a modern form of interminable incarceration.