about
“Your vision will become clear
only when you can look into your own heart.
Who looks outside, dreams;
who looks inside, awakes.”
—Carl Jung (from a letter to Fanny Bowdich, October 22, 1916)
BIOGRAPHY
Brian Schorn in his Studio Rubedo workshop.
Brian Schorn is a multi-disciplinary artist working out of his Studio Rubedo workshop in a small, rural town in Michigan. He grew up on the wild shoreline of Lake Huron, attained the rank of Eagle Scout, was a National Honor Society member in high-school and, after graduation, attended college as a biology major/pre-med student. His interest in nature, science, and photography eventually led him to study fine art in a variety of media.
His college education includes a BFA in fine art photography and MFA degrees in fine art photography, graphic design, creative writing and electronic music. Since the 1990s, he has taught visual art, photography, comparative art, digital art, sound art, graphic design and creative writing at institutions including Alpena Community College, Interlochen Arts Academy, University of Michigan, Brown University, Eastern Michigan University and Grand Valley State University. Currently, Schorn teaches full-time in the Art+Design Program at Alpena Community College. He was awarded an Arts Education Grant in New York through Arts Mid-Hudson where he worked with 3rd–5th graders developing a collaborative, environmental art installation. Also, he frequently contributes to art exhibitions and publications as a curator, juror, and designer.
Schorn’s visual art has been exhibited and published widely throughout the country since the early 1980s. Recent solo exhibitions include Comstock Wabi-Sabi in Nevada, Lost and Found in New York and Magnum Opus: A 25 Year Retrospective in Michigan. Other recent group exhibitions include Practice, Rhythm and Ritual: Meditative Minimalism and Tinker, Tailor, Welder, Weaver: The Art of Assemblage at Crooked Tree Arts Center in Michigan; The New Digital Art Biennale, a virtual gallery organized in Brazil; Snap to Grid at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art and An Homage to Kurt Seligmann at the Seligmann Center for Surrealism in New York.
He has attended artist residencies across the country including Iowa Lakeside Lab in Milford, Iowa; Resident Artist Program in Silver City, Nevada (twice); I-Park Artists Enclave in Connecticut; and Ox-Bow Artist Residencies in Michigan.
Schorn’s art is represented by Tricera in Japan and Rogue Nevada. His art is also in numerous private collections as well as the public collections of Seligmann Center for Surrealism, Berkeley Art Museum’s Pacific Film Archive, University of Michigan Art Museum, Besser Museum of Art, Science and History, and the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science.
artist statement
As an artist and as a human being, I seek to explore the transmutation of matter and mind for the benefit of all. Therefore, I am interested in contemplative art practices that focus on a variety of subjects such as ordinary perception and awareness, interconnectedness, impermanence, equanimity, non-duality and the wonder of natural history. With this approach, I seek to research and experiment with meditative states and visual spaces that are free from suffering, thus offering a path to an enlightened manner of experiencing the world around us.
With the use of found and natural materials (acknowledging our deep connection to our environment), humor (light and open approach to life), simplicity (less is more) and a heightened attention to process (i.e. grinding charcoal in a stone to make ink for calligraphy), I seek to engage the world in a curious, spacious, and open manner. Ultimately, my contemplative art practice is an ongoing attempt to see things as they are and to work with things as they are. Or, it may challenge me to ask a simple Zen question such as, “What is it, really?”
Commonly, I use two themes to interconnect the material (matter) and spiritual (mind) aspects of my work. These two themes are “wabi-sabi” and the “enso.” First, the Japanese concept of “wabi-sabi,” is an aesthetic that embraces, and sees beauty in, objects that are imperfect, incomplete and impermanent. Since found and natural everyday objects provide the primary material for my work, the objects I tend to collect are rusted, withered, rotten, broken, cracked and faded after use and natural decay. Second, the work includes a complimentary exploration of the enso, a Japanese calligraphic brush mark often created by Zen monks as a form of meditation. The enso suggests not only a moment of enlightenment but the cyclic nature of all things as they move through the stages of their existence: beginning, ending and returning (recycling).
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
As It Is, Cause and Effect Gallery, Fenton, MI, 2023
Comstock Wabi-Sabi, Thunder Bay Arts Gallery, Alpena MI, 2022
Comstock Wabi-Sabi, Great Basin Orthopaedics, Reno, NV, 2021
Ways of Contemplation, Studio Rubedo, Alpena, MI, 2020
Comstock Wabi-Sabi, The Depot Gallery, Sparks, NV, 2020
Comstock Wabi-Sabi, Nevada Energy, Reno, NV, 2019
Small-Scale Works, Studio Rubedo, Alpena, MI, 2018
Comstock Wabi-Sabi, Plumas Bank, Reno, NV, 2018
Comstock Wabi-Sabi, Red Mountain Gallery, Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno, NV, 2017–18
Comstock Wabi-Sabi, Microsoft Operations Center, Reno, NV, 2016–17
Comstock Wabi-Sabi, 50 West Liberty Street, Reno, NV, 2015
Comstock Wabi-Sabi, St. Mary’s Art Center, Virginia City, NV, 2015
Lost and Found, Omega Institute Library Gallery, Rhinebeck, NY, 2013
Magnum Opus: A 25 Year Retrospective, Besser Museum, Alpena, MI, 2007
Human Form, Studio 71 Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI, 2006
Entering Poetic Blind Spots, St. Clair County Community College, Port Huron, MI, 1999
Directions in Design, Brunner Art Gallery, Davis College, Toledo, OH, 1998
Ars Memoriae, Po Gallery, Providence, RI, 1992
Body of Work, Painting Gallery, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, 1990
The Logic of Sensation, 55 Peterboro Gallery, Detroit, MI, 1986
gallery & Collector installations
Reimaging, Cause and Effect Gallery, Fenton, MI, 2022
Triptych, Fine Arts Center Gallery, Alpena Community College, Alpena, MI, 2021
The First Lady Presents…, Governor’s Mansion, Carson City, NV, 2021
Biophilia: Love of Life, Ford House, Grosse Pointe Shores, MI, 2021
ArtPrize, represented by College for Creative Studies, Grand Rapids, MI, 2021
Northeast Michigan Juried Art Exhibition, Besser Museum, Alpena, MI, 2020
Northeast Michigan Juried Art Exhibition, Besser Museum, Alpena, MI, 2019
The Art of Coming Undone, Michigan Artists Gallery, Traverse City, MI, 2019
Northeast Michigan Juried Art Exhibition, Besser Museum, Alpena, MI, 2018
555 Special Art Exhibition, Light, Space & Time Online Gallery, 2018
Art in the Peaceable Kingdom, Michigan Artists Gallery, Traverse City, MI, 2018
At the Intersection of Art + Science: Iowa Lakeside Lab Artist-in-Residence Program Alumni Exhibition, Public Space One, Iowa City, IA, 2018
Practice, Rhythm, and Ritual: Meditative Minimalism, Crooked Tree Arts Center, Traverse City, MI, 2017 (four person)
Channeling Picasso, Michigan Artists Gallery, Traverse City, MI, 2017
Tinker, Tailor, Welder, Weaver: The Art of Assemblage, Crooked Tree Arts Center, Petoskey, MI, 2017
2016 Juried Fine Arts Exhibition, Crooked Tree Arts Center, Petoskey, MI, 2016
Black & White, Gallery 109 at Art in the Loft, Alpena, MI, 2016
Abstracts, Light, Space & Time Online Gallery, 2014
New Digital Art Biennale, Homeostasis Lab, São Paulo, Brazil, 2013
Snap to Grid, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA, 2013
Meeting of the Minds: Surrealist and Conceptual Art, Red Hook Community Arts Network, Red Hook, NY, 2013
Homage to Kurt Seligmann, Seligmann Center for Surrealism, Sugar Loaf, NY, 2012
Thought+Material+Action=Art, Drift Station Gallery, Lincoln, NE, 2010
Uncanny: Surrealism and Graphic Design, The Moravian Gallery, Brno, The Czech Republic, 2010
A People’s Guide to Icelandic Butterflies, 350.org Gallery, Skagaströnd, Iceland, 2009
Postcard Salon, Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI, 2009
Computer Punch Card Art, Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science, Sioux Falls, SD, 2006
78th Regional Exhibition, Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI, 2006
Open Source/Open Ear, Mess Hall, Chicago, IL, 2005
In-Flux and Alison Knowles in Detroit, Marygrove College, Detroit, MI, 2004
Constructing the Technological Other, Mills College, Oakland, CA, 2002
Words, Ford Gallery, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI 2000
Skin Deep, Gallery 212, Ann Arbor, MI, 1999
Out of Bounds: Artists’ Books, Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven, CT, 1994
Michigan Annual XXI, The Art Center, Mt. Clemens, MI, 1993
20 Years of Photography at CCS, Yamasaki Gallery, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI, 1989
Young Artist-in-Residence Exhibition, Sykes Gallery, Millersville University, Millersville, PA, 1988
2nd Atlanta Photo Salon, Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA, 1986
Three Views, Detroit Artists Market, Detroit, MI, 1986
Photography, Detroit Focus Gallery, Detroit, MI, 1986
What People Are Saying
“Illuminating and grounding. I love it!.”
—viewer at Comstock Wabi-Sabi exhibition
“comment.”
— coming soon
“comment.”
— coming soon
MATERIAL FOR DOWNLOAD (coming soon)
Extended Biography
A 7-page extended biography in magazine format including images, is available for viewing and/or download.
RESUME
A 4-page artist resume is available for viewing and/or download.
ARTIST STATEMENT
A full artist statement, formatted in a single page is available for viewing and/or download.
PORTFOLIO BOOKLET
A .