Born 1977 in Dallas, TX. Lives in Queens, NY and Schenectady, NY. Works in Amsterdam, NY.
Brent Birnbaum’s work begins with collecting obsolescent objects and repurposing these collections with whimsy and aesthetic rigor. Many of Birnbaum’s projects have featured domestic objects, and are thus informed by Birnbaum’s interests in design, consumer culture, and notions of private and public space. Birnbaum’s work engages with the legacy of Duchamp in his use of the readymade object, humor, and voyeurism, as well as Minimalism in his use of everyday materials, shifts in scale, and formal concerns.
Brent Birnbaum received his MFA from the School of Visual Arts and a BFA from the University of North Texas in Denton. Birnbaum’s most recent solo exhibitions include Seven Games at Denny Dimin Gallery in New York, and That’s what he said at the Museum Wilhelm Morgner in Soest, Germany. He was the cofounder of Topless, a seasonal exhibition space in Rockaway Beach, NY, and has an extensive exhibition history, showing at the Abrons Art Center, NY; Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg; Marta Herford, Germany; The New Bedford Art Museum, MA; Marianne Boesky Gallery, NY; and Regina Rex, NY. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Hyperallergic, New York Magazine’s Vulture, Artforum, among other publications. Elizabeth Denny and Craig Poor Monteith collaborated with Birnbaum during the Spring Break Art Fair in 2015 where Birnbaum constructed an installation of eleven running treadmills with painted belts.
