Brooke Werhane, Artist

Seeking inspiration from the likes of Matisse and Degas from an early age, Brooke Werhane's work navigates through the history of the 20th-century male gaze and painting. She adopts Matisse’s flatness and two-dimensional canvas space, and drags it through Basquiat’s chauvinistic farce of inhabiting the space with the self, constantly questioning the role of painting with a diary-like use of words and writing. 

But here’s the twist: Brooke Werhane's works are never chauvinistic, selfish, or flat. Drawing from a century of male-dominated painting, she reclaims the language of maleness and transforms it into something purely feminine—fragile, beautiful, and yet as strong as can be.

Her flowers exude friskiness, and the figures in her paintings manifest playfully and powerfully, while simultaneously revealing their vulnerability. When considering the context and source of raw feminine emotion that inspires her work, Alice Neel and Frida Kahlo come to mind.

'As I progressed through my studies in art history and environmental design, I continued drawing and painting. I was inspired by the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, Willem de Kooning, and John Singer Sargent.' Both architects and artists have continued to influence her work. 'Capturing the body, movement, energy, and translating human emotion through painting is a constant goal in my practice.'

Brooke Werhane, Artist
Born 1980
Lives and works in Charlotte, NC