born 1954 in Jersey City, New Jersey
lives and works in Austin, Texas and New York
About
Troy Brauntuch has been teaching at the University of Texas in Austin since 2004. He is regularly represented in national and international institutions and galleries. Along with Jack Goldstein, Matt Mullican, Cindy Sherman, and Robert Longo, he is one of the most important exponents of the so-called Pictures Generation of the late 70s and early 80s. Troy Brauntuch copies, assimilates, and alienates media images and then transfers the modified pictures to black cotton fabric, often using white Conté crayons, charcoal, or handmade stamps. A grisaille effect results that is animated by the shadow play of the black-and-white photographs. Oscillating between abstraction and figuration, the largely everyday motives of Brauntuch’s compositions challenge perception and call for great concentration. By questioning the authenticity of images and the manipulated messages behind them, the artist draws attention to what they do not depict, thereby destabilizing the relationship between pictures and their alleged meaning. Troy Brauntuch accentuates the fragility of that relationship by switching back and forth between personal photographs and found images that have been made public. (Text: Dominique von Burg)