Ethan G. Brown is a painter and designer with a multidisciplinary background in graphic and fashion design. His fashion work experience includes Zero + Maria Cornejo in New York and HELM Boots in Austin, Texas. He currently serves as a freelance graphic designer and production manager for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he will receive his Post-Baccalaureate in Painting and Drawing. Major influences in his work and life are the literature of Ali Smith and Elizabeth Bishop, artists Amy Sillman, Geta Bratescu, and Yinka Shonibare, the city of Chicago, and his friends around the country. He is married, lives in Logan Square in a two-flat, and has a cat named Tara Reid.
My work deals with materiality, consciousness, and memory. Using the work as a way to examine the liminal space between the private, internal workings of humans and the personal, public spaces we present to the world, my current work examines depression, happiness, and ways of coping with life that are beyond words. My background in linguistics is a foundation I use to create symbols that express concepts in a way that language sometimes fails to.I create my own grounds and make ink from sustainable and, where possible, local plants and other materials. The investment of time and care into these processes creates a more intimate relationship between my painting, myself, and the viewer.
Sun God I 2019, ink, flashe, acrylic, oil, marker, colored pencil on paper
Sun God II 2019, ink, flashe, acrylic, oil, marker, colored pencil on paper 
Day 2018, flashe, acrylic, marker, graphite on paper
Ozymandias 2018, flashe, marker on paper
Bishop 2018, oil, acrylic, flashe on canvas
