Kitsch N’ Synch :: Brent E. Houzenga

“For the last 17 years I have been painting people from photos from the 1890’s I found in someone’s trash. This occurrence is my origin story as it made me realize how finite my time on earth is and helped fuel what exactly I want to do with my life. It has always been my sentiment that painting these anonymous people illustrates that everyone is meant to shine with their time on earth.

My current body of work is still inspired by this, as well as the synchronicity I keep
experiencing in life. Although I have shifted to doing works on paper and canvas, my practice for many years focused on using found objects to paint on. Philip K Dick said, “God is in the gutter”. I was greeted with a series of many new found things over the course of this year, many of them appearing in this show. 

I celebrate the anniversary of finding those photographs. This year on the anniversary
a friend who I have not seen or heard from in over ten years reached out to me. He is a
photo collector. “Hey Brent, Downsizing a bit. Could send you some photos. They would
be free. Let me know.” They are from the same time period and the same region as my
original find. 

Many of my new works use these new photos as source material, while most of my canvases are found objects that came across my path this year. Synchronicity is a constant in my life and work. Kitsch N’ Synch for me is an illustration of the cross section between the everyday and the mystic. A piece of trash can be a signpost. An unrelated conversation or occurrence might make something meaningless, meaningful. Something that looks similar to a piece of pop art might be trying to point at something more cosmic.

Something might happen. 
Something happens to you. 
You make something happen. 
Something always happening.  “

-Brent Houzenga

Curatorial support by Antenna Collective member, Francisco Magallán.