FIRE BARN GALLERY

John Brower worked in Chicago as a billboard designer for 12 years. He taught art at Alverno College of Milwaukee, Wright Junior College in Chicago, the University of Illinois, and the University of Kentucky.

In John Browers' work two important things come forward: the design and the image. In the painting "Indian 2" you are denied simply enjoying the background or the realistic figure in the foreground. They both on their own would make an interesting painting but Johns' insistence on putting them together leaves you with a picture scrubbed clean of indecision, so clear that you can hardly help yourself from needing to understand its meaning. John Browers' pictures are modern - no matter how instant they look you can tell they have been thought about and realized with a lot of calculation and intentionality.

Chris Protas, Fire Barn Gallery: "I told John I thought his paintings are realistic. He said he doesn't want to be associated with any school of painting." It seems John is right. His paintings are a combination of many things but they deny a simple classification.

He has exhibited regularly in galleries throughout the country over the past 40 years and his work is in numerous collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.

This show will feature some of his monumental-scale work spanning several decades of his career.