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Cecily Brown is one of the most celebrated contemporary painters. Renowned for her dynamic works that dissolve boundaries between abstraction and figuration, her work is informed by Old Masters, Abstract Expressionism, and popular culture. Her work frequently explores themes of sexuality, nature, and human relationships.
She has been the subject of numerous institutional exhibitions, most recently “Themes and Variations” at the Dallas Museum of Art, “Death and the Maid,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2023), “Cecily Brown,” Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2022); “The Triumph of Death,” Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Naples (2022); “Cecily Brown,” at Blenheim Palace, UK (2020–2021); “Where, When, How Often and with Whom” at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark (2018); “If Paradise Were Half as Nice,” Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2018).
born 1969 London, UK
lives and works in New York
selected solo exhibitions
2025
Themes and Variations, The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
2024
Themes and Variations, Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, USA
2023
Death and the Maid, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
“Temptations, Torments, Trials an Tribulations”, Museo Novecento and Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy
2022
The Spell, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
Cecily Brown, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany
The Triumph of Death, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy
2021
Cecily Brown. The end is a new start, Blum and Poe, Tokyo, Japan
Cecily Brown. Pronkstilleven, Gladstone Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2020
Cecily Brown, Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, UK
2019
We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, Thomas Dane Gallery, Naples, Italy
2018
Where, When, How Often and with Whom, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark
Triumph of the Vanities II, The Metropolitan Opera House, New York NY
If Paradise Were Half as Nice, Museo Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba, Brazil
Rehearsal, MCA Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA
2017
A Day! Help! Help! Another Day!,Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, USA
Shipwreck Drawings, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK
2016
Cecily Brown: Rehearsal, The Drawing Center, New York, USA
Madrepora, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, UK
2015
The Sleep Around the Lost and Found, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
2014
Cecily Brown, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, Italy
2012
Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg, Austria
2010
Cecily Brown, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
Based on a True Story, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, Germany. Traveled to: GEM Museum of Contemporary Art, Den Haag, Netherlands
2009
Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany
2006
Cecily Brown, curated by Jeff Fleming, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA. Traveled to: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA
New Paintings, Gagosian Gallery, Britannia Street, London, England
2005
Cecily Brown: Paintings, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany
Cecily Brown: Paintings, Curated by Suzanne Cotter, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK
2004
Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
Cecily Brown, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
2003
Cecily Brown, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome, Italy
2002
Directions – Cecily Brown, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
2001
Days of Heaven, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
1999
Serenade, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, UK
The Skin Game, Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, USA
1998
High Society, Deitch Projects, New York, USA
1997
Spectacle, Deitch Projects, New York, USA
1995
Eagle Gallery, London, UK
selected group exhibitions
2023
Torments, Temptations, Trials, and Tribulations, Museo Novecento, Florence, Italy
Ecstatic, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
In New York, Thinking of You, Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY
Beautiful, Vivid, Self-contained, Hill Art Foundation, New York, NY
Reaching for the Stars. Works from the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection,
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
2022
Positive Fragmentation: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, USA
A Collection without Boundaries, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Turin, Italy (ongoing)
Artists Inspired by Music: Interscope Reimagined, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA
2021
Andy Warhol to Cecily Brown, Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria
Innovation and Imagination: The Global Dialogue in Mid to Late 20th Century Art, Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, USA
A Journey Through Printmaking: International Printmaking Art Exhibition, CAFA Art Museum, Chaoyang, China
2020
Espressioni: The Proposition, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin, Italy
Radical Figures: Painting in the New Millennium, Whitechapel Gallery, London, England
Bustes de Femmes, Gagosian, Paris, France
2019
Max Beckmann in Dialogue Cecily Brown, Ella Kruglyanskaya, Dana Schutz, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
Transitions and Transformations, LSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, USA
2018
Bacon, Freud and the painting of the school of London, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
All Too Human, Tate Britain, London, England
2017
Salon des Fidèles, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
2016
Desire, curated by Diana Widmaier-Picasso, presented by Larry Gagosian and Jeffrey Deitch, Art Basel, Miami Beach
Cecily Brown, Jeff Koons, Charles Ray, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, USA
2015
Tightrope walk: Painted Images After Abstraction, curated by Barry Schwabsky, White Cube, London, UK
Sleepless – The Bed in History and Contemporary Art, 21er Haus, Vienna, Austria
2011
The Art of Deceleration. Motion and Rest in Art from Caspar David Friedrich to Ai Weiwei, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany
2009
Paint Made Flesh, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN, USA; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, NY
Visible Invisible: Against the Security of the Real, Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London, UK
2006
Once Upon a Time in the West, Part One, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
Heroines, curated by Dodie Kazanjian, the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gelley Met at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, USA
2005
Getting Emotional, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, USA
90-Day loans: From the Broad Art Foundation and the Ovitz Family Collection, Nelson Fine Arts Center, Arizona State University Museum, Tempe, USA
Contemporary Erotic Drawing, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT, USA
2004
Whitney Biennial 2004, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
A Collector’s Vision, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Austria
Direct Painting, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany
2003
Gyroscope, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Under Pressure: Prints from Two Palms Press, Cooper Union, New York, USA
2001
Szenewechsel XIX, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
1999
At Century’s End: The John P. Morrissey Collection of 90’s Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Lake Worth, FL, USA
Four Letter Heaven, David Zwirner Video Library, New York, USA
1996
Taking Stock, Curated by Kenny Schacter, New York, USA
1994
The Fete Worse Than Death, Laurent Delaye, London, UK
John Jones Open, The Gallery at John Jones, London, UK
1990
Contemporary View, National Competition for British Art Students, Royal College of Art, London, UK
