(Close)

Brennen Steines

Contact:
brennensteines@gmail.com
Instagram
Website

Inquries:
DIMIN NYC
gallery@dimin.nyc

Brennen Steines, Studio Portrait, 2026

Statement:

Matter speaks. It speaks through the elemental interactions of density, flow, and resistance; acted upon by the forces of gravity, time, and motion. New forms rise and fall; coalesce and disperse, from chaos to order and back again. The landscape discloses the traces of this history. How can painting register the dynamic fluxes and flows of this elemental dance? Through utilizing a confluence of chance-based processes and responsive decisions, Brennen Steines constructs abstract landscapes that speak to the haunting awe of material transformation and the psychology of perception.

Process is central to Steines’ methodology. For the artist, painting is a way to meditate on the alchemical qualities of the medium’s materiality. Layers of oil, limestone, and metal are added to the substrate, left to dry, and then excavated; creating a geological sedimentation of pigment on the surface. Emulsive solutions evaporate over the paintings, creating optical fields of molten texture. Through the process, the paintings become visceral records of their own creation, resulting in topographical terrains that expose the traces of their own history. The work thus becomes a site where past and present converge; an act of transmutation where base material is transformed into an object of aesthetic contemplation.

Steines’ practice is also informed by his experiences with a lifelong autoimmune condition, which has repeatedly brought his body into states of crisis. The work does not depict this history directly; instead, it embodies its microscopic logic. He approaches painting as a field of unseen turbulence—where the surface feels as though it is breaking down and disintegrating through its own creation. Corrosion, fracture, and oxidation are not treated as signs of loss however, but as generative forces.

Together, the works form a constellation of surfaces shaped by pressure, time, and contingency. Steines’ scientific approach to abstraction considers painting not as image alone, but as matter in flux—where collapse and coherence remain inseparable. Positioning painting as a material index of time made visible.

Bio:

Brennen Steines (b. Rockford, IL.) is currently based in New Haven, CT. He received an MFA from Yale School of Art in 2022, attended the Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art in 2022, and received a BFA with an Honors College degree from University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 2018. Steines was a Yale University CCAM Blended Reality Studio Fellow from 2021 - 2022 and attended the Yale Norfolk School of Art through the Ellen Battell Stoeckel fellowship in 2017. He was an Artist in Residence in Plum Blossom Initiative’s Bridge Work-04 in 2018. His work has been nationally and internationally exhibited at DIMIN, New York, NY; Chilli Art Projects, London, UK; Museum of Wisconsin Art; West Bend, WI; Jeffrey Deitch, New York, NY; Green Hall Gallery, New Haven, CT; The Alice Wilds, Milwaukee, WI; Usable Space, Milwaukee, WI; and Galerie Kenilworth, Milwaukee, WI.

Representation:

Brennen Steines is represented by DIMIN in NYC.

Cirrculum Vitae

Brennen Steines

brennensteines@gmail.com

B. 1993 Rockford, IL

Education

2022 Yale School of Art, MFA Painting/Printmaking, CT

2022 Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art, NY

2018 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, B.F.A. with an Honors College Degree, WI

2017 Yale University Norfolk School of Art, CT

Solo Exhibitions

2026 As Above, So Below at DIMIN, New York City, NY

2023 Dispersion Field at DIMIN, New York City, NY

2020 Vestiges at The Alice Wilds, Milwaukee, WI

Group Exhibitions

2025 Scapes at DIMIN, New York City, NY


Bridge Work: 10 Years of Making at Frederick Layton Gallery, Milwaukee, WI

2024 Intersections at Chilli Art Projects, London, UK

2023 Surface Level at Dimin, New York City, NY


   Ten at Ten at The Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend, WI

2022 Vibrant Matters at Jeffrey Deitch, New York City, NY

By Tomorrow at The Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University, New Haven, CT

Vibrant Matters MFA Thesis Show at Green Gallery in Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT

2021 10268# at Green Gallery in Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT

No Masters at Green Gallery in Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT

2020 We Might Have Been Born Yesterday, But We Stayed Up All Night at BTG, Milwaukee, WI

2019 Bridge Work 04 at UW Oshkosh Allen Preibe Annex Gallery, Oshkosh, WI



Emerging Artists Exhibition at Var West Gallery, Milwaukee, WI

2018 Within and Against at Galerie Kenilworth, Milwaukee, WI

Soft Ground, Stiff Shoulder at Usable Space, Milwaukee, WI

Bridge Work 04 at Var West Gallery, Milwaukee, WI

Hinternational Paper Project at Real Tinsel, Milwaukee, WI

Looking Sideways at Usable Space, Milwaukee, WI

2017 Yale University at Norfolk School of Art Show, Norfolk, CT

   Process > Presence at Hoax Gallery, Milwaukee, WI

2016 Cambrian at The Cooperativa, Milwaukee, WI

2015 Crossing Over at Union Art Gallery, Milwaukee, WI

Awards

2022 Elizabeth Canfield Hicks Award (Outstanding Achievement in Painting from Nature), Yale School of Art

2021 Center for Collaborative Arts and Blended Reality Studio Fellowship, Yale University

  James William Proctor Jr. Scholarship, Yale University

2019 Emerging Artist Finalist, Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowship, Milwaukee, WI

2018 Plum Blossom Initiative Bridge Work 04 professional development program

Var West Gallery, Artist-in-Residence, Milwaukee, WI

2017 Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship, Norfolk, CT

Laurence Rathsack Scholarship, University of Wisconsin– Milwaukee

2016 Laurence Rathsack Scholarship, University of Wisconsin– Milwaukee

  Frederick R. Layton Scholarship, University of Wisconsin– Milwaukee

Publications and Presentations

2023 Ten Talks Series Speaker, Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend, WI

2022 Maquette Issue 3, Center for Collaborative Arts and Media, Yale University, New Haven, CT

2021 Yale School of Art Open Studios, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT

2019 Bridge Work 04 Lecture, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Milwaukee, WI

2018 Within and Against Presentation, Galerie Kenilworth, Milwaukee, WI

Bridge Work Lecture, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI

2017 Duomo V, Milwaukee, WI

Duomo IV, Milwaukee, WI

Press

2025 ARTnews, The Best Booths at NADA New York

2024 Dimin Now Represents

2018 Shane McAdams, Two Milwaukee Artists in Dialogue at Galerie Kenilworth's 'Within and

Against' At Galerie Kenilworth, Shepherd Express.

Todd Mrozinski, The Energy of Emerging Artists, Urban Milwaukee.

Kate Mothes, Interview for Young Space

https://yngspc.com/artists/2018/02/brennen-steines/

2016 Jeff Grygny, Primordial Ooze: “Cambrian” Brings High Abstraction Down to Earth

Mike Fischer, “Cambrian” Delivers Clay Animation with a Twist, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

©2026