Curated by Robert Fleck

A London-born artist who resides in New York, Cecily Brown has described painting as “a kind of alchemy,” adding that she wants “to catch something in the act of becoming something else.” Steeped in art history, with avowed debts to Abstract Expressionism and the old masters, Brown’s output flaunts vigorous brushwork that both integrates and transforms images drawn from pornography, cartoons, Victorian storybooks, and the like. Filling the skylighted spaces of the Deichtorhallen with a survey of some fifty works on canvas and paper from the past ten years—with an emphasis on Brown’s large-scale paintings—curator Robert Fleck sets out to affirm Brown’s reputation as one of the most influential young painters working today. A catalogue—featuring essays by Fleck and art historian Dore Ashton, as well as an interview of Brown by Lari Pittman—accompanies the show.

— Molly Warnock