A Perfect Defect: Haiku Month Comes to a Close

Miss my studio.
The point of the brush becomes
a world in itself.

About the Art

The quest for "perfection" has become a cornerstone of our culture. Advertisers and marketing experts routinely use consumers' faith in the analytically reasoned truths of science and optimism generated by technological progress as tools for manipulating the secular marketplace. They play to and prey on the public's hopes, dreams, fears, and insecurities. The great consumption machine provides perfect answers in the form of perfect futuristic products offered to rescue or revive our imperfect lives.

Wayne Edson Bryan's newest paintings challenge the fundamental premises of the consumer culture by using many of the same subliminal visual tools to embrace the antithesis of prepackaged perfection: the defects; the accidents; the waywardness; and the imperfectability of human nature. He employs sign painter's enamel and a pixelated, saw-toothed line to create multi-layered paintings featuring patterns and images created by or associated with computers, as well as iconography from biology, physics, mathematics and chemistry. By rendering these normally precise, mechanically generated and reproduced images by hand, their human origin and attributes become more conspicuous and endearing. By choosing to work with geometric patterns, the contrasting organic qualities of the brushwork is heightened to celebrate the mysterious imperfections of existence: the incalculable, the fortuitous, the errant, the unpredictable.

Click here to read Ferdinand Protzman's essay about the art of Wayne Edson Bryan.

Bryan's work has been exhibited at:

American University Museum - Washington DC, Arlington Arts Center, Artist Alliance Gallery - Tampa, Boca Raton Center for the Arts, Brody's Gallery - Washington DC, Cleveland Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art, Contemporary Art Museum - Houston, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Daimaru Museum, Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History, Gallery K - Washington DC, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center - Buffalo, Hand Workshop - Richmond, Hokkaido Obihiro Museum of Art, Honolulu Museum of Art, Institute of Contemporary Art - Boston, International Museum of Modest Arts - Sete, Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art, The Jakarta Arts Center, Kaoshiung Municipal Museum, Maryland Arts Place, McLean Project for the Arts, Meridian International Center - Washington DC, Mint Museum of Art, Mitsukoshi Museum of Art - Fukuoka, Museum of Fine Arts - Hanoi, Museum of Fine Arts - Ho Chi Minh City, New York Historical Society, The Painting Institute - Shanghai, Philbrook Museum of Art, Portland Art Museum, Rockville Arts Place, San Jose Museum of Art, School 33 Art Center - Baltimore, Shin-kon Museum, The Singapore Museum of Art, Sogo Museum of Art - Yokohama, Taipei Municipal Museum, Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Tampa Museum, Tennessee State Museum, Washington Project for the Arts, and The Working People's Cultural Palace - Beijing.

Resume

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1999
Perfect/Defect, Gallery K, Washington, DC, October 1 - 30.
1998
WEB, Gallery K, Washington, DC, May 1 - 30.
1997
Top, Gallery K, Washington, DC, March 4 - 29.
1996
Purple Portion, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY, March 9 - April 20, curator: Sara Kellner.
1995
Win, Gallery K, Washington, DC, October 31 - November 25.
1995
Gold Diggers, Back Stabbers and Game Players: Ten Years of Creating Art Inside the Beltway, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, October 12 - November 13.
1993
The Purple Gang, Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC, September 17 - November 20.
1991
Trickster, Brody's Gallery, Washington, DC, May 2 - 25.
1990
Paranoias, Brody's Gallery, Washington, DC, June 1 - 30.
1989
Beyond Language, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA, September 15 - October 28.
1988
New Works, Gallery 4, Alexandria, VA, January 23 - April 16.
1982
some more Silly Ritual Icons, Artist Alliance Gallery, Tampa, FL, October 15 - November 6.
1978
Fossils, USF University Center Art Gallery, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, November 13 - 17.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2008
Collectors Select, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA, January 29 - March 29, (catalog), curators: Jeffry Cudlin and Philip Barlow.
2006
Remembering Marc & Komei, American University Museum, Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC, January 18 - March 12, (catalog), curator: Jack Rasmussen.
2001
King Size, International Museum of Modest Arts, Sete, France, June 21 - October 31.
2000
Strictly Painting III, McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, VA, June 8 - July 22, juror: Terrie Sultan.
2000
New American Paintings: Juried Exhibitions in Print, Number 27, The Open Studios Press, April - May, juror: Howard Fox.
1999-00
Outward Bound: American Art on the Brink of the 21st Century, Meridian International Center, Washington, DC, May 25 - July 11, Internationally traveled, (catalog), curators: Nancy Matthews, Bill Dunlap and Pamela Maslansky.
1996
ArtSites 96, School 33 Art Center, Baltimore, MD, May 29 - July 27, (catalog), curator: Claudia Amory.
1994-98
Elvis + Marilyn: 2 X Immortal, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, November 2 - January 5, Internationally traveled, (catalog), curator: Wendy McDaris.
1994
Painting '94, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA, January 22 - March 5, juror: Donald Kuspit.
1992
WPA in the Hemicycle, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, June 5 - 28.
1991
Washington on the Edge: New Painters, Danville Museum of Fine Arts & History, Danville, VA, January 12 - July 3, Traveled, (catalog), curator: Thomas W. Jones.
1991
Mid-Atlantic/NEA Regional Painting Fellowship Winners, Johnson & Johnson World Headquarters, New Brunswick, NJ, January 1 - December 31, Traveled.
1990
Options 1990, Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC, January 4 - February 24, (catalog), curators: Jock Reynolds and Alan Prokop.
1990
Mixing It Up: Artist's Designs And Fashions, Rockville Arts Place, Rockville, MD, October 7 - November 10, curator: Alice Denney.
1980
Tampa Bay '80, Tampa Museum, Tampa, FL, July 1 - August 30, (catalog), juror: Graham W. J. Beal.
1979
Fourth Annual USF Juried Art Exhibition, USF Art Gallery, Tampa, FL, March 11 - April 7, juror: Jane Livingston.
1978-79
Souvenirs of Florida: The South Florida Silver Portfolio, USF Art Gallery, Tampa, FL, September 26 - January 30, Traveled, curator: David Yager.
1978
Third Annual USF Juried Art Exhibition, USF Art Gallery, February 20 - March 24, juror: Marcia Tucker.
1978
IBM Abstract Art Show, Boca Raton Center for the Arts, Boca Raton, FL, January 8 - February 3, juror: Janet Folsum.

SCHOLARSHIPS, AWARDS AND GRANTS

2001
Awarded Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship.
1999
Grant awarded by The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc.
1994
Awarded commission to create art for Washington National Airport by architectural firm Cesar Pelli & Associates, Inc.
1990
Awarded Mid-Atlantic/NEA Painting Fellowship.
1989
Awarded commission by the Student Loan Marketing Association (Sallie Mae) to create art for their Washington, DC offices.
1989
Awarded First Place for Painting, Virginia Commission for the Arts Prizes for the Visual Arts.
1978
Awarded First Place Prize by Janet Folsum in IBM Abstract Art Show.
1977
Awarded Syd Solomon Scholarship.
1975
Awarded Boca Raton Center for the Arts Scholarship.
1974
Awarded First Place Prize in Florida State Fair Art Scholarship.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Collectors Select. Exhibition catalog. Forewords by Claire Huschle and Jeffry Cudlin. Essays by Philip Barlow, Julian Fore, Philippa Hughes, Daniel Levinas, Heather & Tony Podesta and Henry Thaggert. Copyright, 2008 Arlington Arts Center.

P/D2: A New Strain. Exhibition catalog. Essay by Ferdinand Protzman. Copyright, 2002 Wayne Edson Bryan.

J. W. Mahoney. "Wayne Edson Bryan at Gallery K." Art in America, Volume 88 - Number 6 (June 2000): 130.

J. W. Mahoney. "The Capital of Nostalgia: Washington DC..." New Art Examiner, Volume 27 - Number 4 (December 1999 - January 2000): 30 - 35.

Ferdinand Protzman. "In the Sweet Buy and Buy." Washington Post, October 14, 1999, p. C5.

Outward Bound: American Art in the Brink of the 21st Century. Exhibition catalog. Text by Eric Gibson, Nancy Matthews, Bill Dunlap and Pamela Maslansky. Copyright, 1999 Meridian International Center.

Sue Allison. "Area Artists at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport." Washington Review, Volume XXIV - Number 3 (October - November 1998): 3 - 10.

George Howell. "Wayne Edson Bryan: WEB." Art Papers, Volume 22 - Number 5 (September - October 1998): 37 - 38.

Ferdinand Protzman. "WEB, a Show That Steps Out of Line." Washington Post, May 14, 1998, p. C5.

Benjamin Forgey. "Airport Art That Soars." Washington Post, February 1, 1998, p. G2.

Stephen May. "Strokes of Genius." Washington Flyer, Volume 8 - Number 6 (July - August 1997): cover, 28 - 29.

Ferdinand Protzman. "The New National - 10 Artworks You Shouldn't Miss..." Washington Post, July 16, 1997, p. F14 - F15.

Ferdinand Protzman. "Ulterior Motifs." Washington Post, March 15, 1997, p. H2.

Jean Lawlor Cohen. "Up To Old Tricks." Where/Washington, March 1997, p. 24.

Jacqueline Trescott. "Landing First-Class Art." Washington Post, June 18, 1996, p. B1 & B6.

John Dorsey. "Humor clearly has it's place..." Baltimore Sun, June 1, 1996, p. D1.

Richard Huntington. "All Together Now." The Buffalo News/Gusto, March 29, 1996, p. 35.

Matthieu Victor. "Neurodisney." Artvoice, Volume 7 - Issue 7 (March 27 - April 10, 1996): cover, 1 - 2.

The Useful Art of Wayne Edson Bryan. Exhibition brochure. Text by Grant Samuelsen. Buffalo: Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, 1996.

Ferdinand Protzman. "A Doubly Singular Vision." Washington Post, November 4, 1995, p. C2.

Jean Lawlor Cohen. "Pop Goes The Easel." Where/Washington, November 1995, p. 27.

Elvis + Marilyn: 2 X Immortal. Exhibition catalog. Text by Wendy McDaris, David Halberstam, Thomas McEviley, Geri DePaoli, Kate Millett, Bruce Heller, Alan C. Elms, Richard Martin, John D. Baskerville, Lucinda Ebersole and Gary Vikan. Copyright, 1994 Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. and DB&A Exhibition Management, Inc.

Lee Fleming. "Gallery K's Familiar New Faces." Washington Post, April 9, 1994, p. B2.

Anne J. Banks. "Three Exhibitions..." Washington Review, Volume XIX - Number 4 (December 1993 - January 1994): 23.

Lee Fleming. "Doug Brown and Wayne Bryan: Team Works." Washington Review, Volume 17 - Number 5 (February - March 1992): 3 - 7.

Washington on the Edge: New Painters. Exhibition catalog. Text by Thomas W. Jones. Danville Museum of Fine Arts & History, 1991.

Ann Glenn Crowe. "Objects d'Art: Contemporary Folding Screens." Art Papers, Volume 15 - Number 1 (January - February 1991): 65.

Patrick Finnegan. "Wayne Edson Bryan, Brody's Gallery." Contemporanea 21 (October 1990): 103.

Michael Welzenbach. "The Sculpture Standouts." Washington Post, June 9, 1990, p. B2.

J. W. Mahoney. "Options 1990, Washington Project for the Arts." New Art Examiner, Volume 17 - Number 11 (Summer 1990): 39 - 40.

Patrick Finnegan. "Washington." Contemporanea 16 (March 1990): 41.

Options 1990. Exhibition catalog. Text by Jock Reynolds and Alan Prokop. Washington, DC: Washington Project for the Arts, 1990.

Patrick Finnegan. "Wayne Edson Bryan, Arlington Arts Center." New Art Examiner, Volume 17 - Number 5 (January 1990): 44 - 45.

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Capital One, Richmond, VA.

Accenture, Reston, VA.

KPMG Consulting, Tysons Corner, VA.

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Washington, DC.

National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD.

City Hall Art Collection, Washington, DC.

Institute for Defense Analyses, Alexandria, VA.

Life Technologies, Inc., Rockville, MD.

Sallie Mae, Reston, VA.

Artery Organization, Inc., Washington, DC.

Price List