Branden Koch
Stationary Front #2, 2011
Ink, gouache, watercolor on paper
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection
Gift of the artist
2016.07.004

The work of Branden Koch is known for its acute and emotive investigations into the complex cultural and political systems that structure our lives and experiences. Faced with the absurd turmoil of contemporary life, Branden responds with vigorous drawings, paintings, and sculptures; they are materially driven visualizations of the nervous system, walking a hi/low tightrope between cartoon and abstraction, a viscerally cosmic and cerebrally guttural aggregate.

Item description: An abstract painting done with navy lines on cream paper. The contours of a suspended feminine figure can be made out within an incomplete rectangle, their smiling profile facing up. The lower half of the painting is hashed with dry brushstrokes. Going downward diagonally across the center of the drawing is a string of patterns alternating between red down-facing arrows and blue up-facing half-circles like an isallobar.