Debra Brehmer

Milwaukee

Contributor at Freelance

Contributor at Hyperallergic

A contemporary art gallery dedicated to the ideas and social context of the portrait.

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Articles

New York City Shows to See Right Now

1 month ago | hyperallergic.com | Natalie Haddad |John Yau |Debra Brehmer |Alexis Clements

Some of our favorite shows this week are all about giving new life to old things and looking at our environments from a different perspective: creative reuse, recycling and repurposing objects, and re-envisioning architecture as inviting and inclusive.
The Unexpected Beauty of Detritus

1 month ago | hyperallergic.com | Debra Brehmer

Outside 101 Spring Street in Soho, pedestrians noisily stream by. But inside this five-story historic space is a different world where the lingering aura of Donald Judd’s quiet presence resides. Judd purchased the building in 1968 and, along with a later residence in Marfa, Texas, it was his home until his death at age 65 in 1994. The building can be toured by appointment, with the ground floor open to the public as an exhibition space on Fridays and Saturdays.
New York City Shows We Love Right Now

2 months ago | hyperallergic.com | Natalie Haddad |Lisa Zhang |Debra Brehmer |Alexis Clements |Alexandra Thomas

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, please join us as a member. The exhibitions below ask viewers to engage their senses and spend time with art that’s slower to reveal itself. That may means noticing details you’d otherwise miss, in the work of Madalena Santos Reinbolt and Deborah-Joyce Holman.
A Brazilian Artist’s Intergalactic Wool Paintings

Mar 26, 2025 | hyperallergic.com | Debra Brehmer

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, please join us as a member. Madalena Santos Reinbolt’s woven embroideries are made of commercial, acrylic yarn, an unforgiving medium often associated with grade school weaving kits and resale store afghans. But the artist’s quadros de lã (“wool paintings”) miraculously, almost magically, transcend categories of high and low, craft and painting.
Benny Andrews Painted the Textures of Life

Feb 25, 2025 | hyperallergic.com | Debra Brehmer

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, please join us as a member. MILWAUKEE — Benny Andrews was a painter, as well as an activist, an art educator in prisons, and an inspiration to many Black artists. He made figurative paintings utilizing a technique he called “rough collage,” where he selectively built up parts of the composition with paper or fabric.
Frida Kahlo’s Elegy to Heartache

Jan 16, 2025 | hyperallergic.com | Debra Brehmer

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, please join us as a member. Mexico City — The Museo de Arte Moderno is nearly vacant when I visit. It feels unnatural to enter a quiet space in Mexico City. This is a place where the streets clamor, in the best possible way. Clean-up crews usher in the morning with clanky carts and the swish of straw brooms.
An Emotional Journey Through Tracey Emin’s Art

Nov 7, 2024 | hyperallergic.com | Debra Brehmer

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, consider supporting us as a member. Join Us LONDON — At first glance, Tracey Emin’s I followed you to the end at White Cube resembles her last exhibition at the gallery. The emotive works in A Fortnight of Tears, five years ago, were influenced by the recent death of the artist’s mother.
When Scandinavia Was a Hotbed of Black American Culture

Oct 29, 2024 | hyperallergic.com | Debra Brehmer

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, consider supporting us as a member. Join Us MADISON, Wisconsin — An old suitcase with a small leather handle summons the presence of the person who once carried it across oceans and nations. Surrounding it in a display case are a pair of shoes, gloves, a hat, and a Bible, all owned by the Julliard-trained Black classical pianist Eugene Haynes.
Petah Coyne’s Maximalist Art Lays Bare Women’s Oppression

Oct 8, 2024 | hyperallergic.com | Debra Brehmer

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, consider supporting us as a member. Join Us MADISON, Wisconsin — Throughout history, women have been swaddled in satins, velvets, and crinkly chiffons with adornments so excessive that they curtail movement. Elaborate hairstyles and high heels — expressions of a culture’s fickle notions of beauty — might seem innocuous, but they too constrict women.
The Fury and Failings of a Nicole Eisenman Survey

Jul 31, 2024 | hyperallergic.com | Debra Brehmer

CHICAGO — Nicole Eisenman’s art nods to some of the most prominent men in art history: James Ensor and Edvard Munch, for instance, both of whom have had a lingering impact on contemporary artists. And Francis Bacon and Philip Guston. These guys keep floating to the surface of nearly every decade’s consciousness. Eisenman thickens the stew of inspiration by throwing in some Bruegel, a dash of Impressionism, a bit of Daumier. Picasso sneaks in too.