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Meet the Artists

Michael Brophy '85

micheal

Living Large

BFA Alumnus

Any Who’s Who of emerging Northwest artists would have to include Michael Brophy. His regal, decaying landscapes and portraits of jagged tree stumps spotlight the confluence of humanity and nature. Often enormous in scale and rippling with undercurrents of humor and social commentary, his paintings are included in the collections of Portland Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, Microsoft, and other important institutions.

He’s won many grants and awards, including multiple Juror Awards at the Oregon Biennial. His massive, stern yet sly paintings make an indelible impression, whether on display at Laura Russo Gallery or the prestigious Baja to Vancouver exhibit. A monograph of his work was recently published by Clear Cut Press.

brophy art 1 “Curtain,” 1999, oil on canvas, 96” x 78”

In person, Mike is welcoming and unpretentious, as happy to show visitors a tiny guache in progress as to talk about the two huge, awe-inspiring oils that occupy the main walls of his rough-hewn warehouse studio. “I grew up in Portland, born and raised, the whole bit,” Mike says, flashing a wide smile. “I grew up right by Forest Park. I played in the woods as a kid, and I guess I’m still doing it.”

After studying general subjects at the University of Oregon, he took a semester in London. “I had always drawn, since I was a kid, and I was really into comics. In a class, we were taken to the Tate and the National Gallery. The painting just blew me out.” Shortly thereafter, he began studies at PNCA, where he thrived on the curriculum’s focus and direction.

“I was really lucky because I had great classmates, a lot of artists that are still working today in Portland,” he says. “We were pushing each other, and the faculty was great. It was good, it was serious, it was intense. Now I teach drawing and painting periodically; I’m an adjunct faculty.”

brophy art 2 “Pacific Wonderland,” 2002, oil on canvas, 78” x 84”

He cites several other influential moments: a study abroad program in Italy and a later visit to El Prado in Madrid, which together helped shape an aesthetic influenced by Vel‡squez, Manet, and the Venetian School. As for his choice of subject matter?

Driving to the Oregon Coast one day, he came across an enormous clear cut. “It looked like World War I,” he says. He immediately pulled over to the side of the road and drew what he saw. “It was kind of awesome and sublime. Of course it was destructive, but it was spectacular too.”

His resulting focus on landscape does involve nature and place, but “hopefully it has that conceptual bent that makes it reach out. It’s a metaphor for something bigger and greater.”