Born 1978, Long Beach, California
Lives and works in Highland Park, Los Angeles, California
📧 [email protected]
📞 323.229.7939
📸 Instagram @brooks_salzwedel_art
📍 Studio visits available by request
🤝 Contact for collaborations and private viewings of new work.
Bio
Brooks is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work navigates the emotional terrain between nature, memory, and constructed environments. Using a self-developed process that layers resin, wax, graphite, acrylic, semi-transparent films and mixed media, he builds meditative, dreamlike compositions. Fog-laced forests, icy expanses, and fractured wildernesses emerge, subtly interrupted by industrial remnants, intimate symbols, and queer-coded artifacts—quiet echoes of identity and impermanence.
He received his BFA with honors from Art Center College of Design in 2004, launching his career with a solo debut at NewSpace Gallery. Since then, his work has been exhibited internationally and featured in museums including MOAH (Lancaster), the Hammer Museum, and MOCA Los Angeles. His solo show Rut in the Soil (2018) marked a turning point, where themes of isolation, loss, and environmental tension became deeply intertwined with his personal history and identity.
A former National Parks artist-in-residence at Denali and White River, Salzwedel draws on his deep love of quiet places and overlooked details. His pieces have been commissioned by musicians like Novo Amor and institutions like LA Metro and the Guthrie Theater. He’s spoken on his process and themes at Gonzaga University, MOAH, and other venues.
Now working from his home studio in Highland Park, Brooks is expanding his creative reach—exploring multimedia storytelling, curatorial collaborations, and immersive sculptural works. His recent iceberg and forest series pushes further into concepts of vulnerability, permanence, and queer ecology. Whether through intimate terrariums or monumental dreamscapes, Salzwedel’s work invites viewers to reflect on how we carry history, trauma, and beauty across shifting emotional and physical landscapes.
Education
2004 – BFA, Cum Laude, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA
Selected Solo & Three-Person Exhibitions
2025 – Three-person exhibition, AMcE Creative Arts, Seattle, WA (July)
2025 – Three-person exhibition, Benjamin Eck Gallery, Munich, Germany (September 16)
2024 – Embodiment, AMcE Creative Arts, Seattle, WA
2019 – Isolate / Don’t Isolate, Benjamin Eck Gallery, Munich, Germany
2018 – Rut in the Soil, MOAH (Museum of Art and History), Lancaster, CA, presented by Thinkspace Projects
2018 – Dust and Dawn, Foley Gallery, New York, NY
2018 – Lost Lands, Johansson Projects, Oakland, CA
2016 – Site-specific commission, Descanso Gardens via LA Metro, Los Angeles, CA
2014 – National Parks, Gbg Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2013 – Temporal Void, Johansson Projects, Oakland, CA
2012 – Of Steel, Cement & Earth, George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2010 – Bo Lee Gallery, Bath, United Kingdom
2009 – Phylum Kingdom, Black Maria Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2009 – Land Makers, Tinlark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2008 – Modern Soil, Black Maria Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2008 – By Fault of Its Own, Tinlark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2007 – Ultra Autumn, R3 Gallery, San Diego, CA
2006 – Hidden, Black Maria Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006 – Halcyon, NewSpace Gallery, Hollywood, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 – Interpretations of Our Natural World, River Gallery, Ohio
2021 – ETA30, Nahcotta Gallery, New Hampshire
2021 – Tondo, Spoke Art, New York, NY
2021 – Other Nature, Foley Gallery, New York, NY
2021 – Creative Resource, Round Weather Gallery, Oakland, CA
2020 – Magnum Opus, Wanderlife Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2019 – Surreal Sublime, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art (SJICA), CA
2018 – Remembered / Imagined, Paradigm Gallery & Antler Gallery, Portland, OR
2018 – LAX/PDX, Antler Gallery x Thinkspace Projects, Portland & Los Angeles
2018 – Audio/Visual, Nahcotta Gallery, Portsmouth, NH
2017 – Forget What You Know, Sp[a]ce Gallery, Pasadena, CA
2017 – SCOPE Art Fair, with Thinkspace Projects, Miami, FL
2017 – LUSH, MAK Center, collaboration with Superjacent, Los Angeles, CA
2017 – Pow!Wow! Hawaii, Thinkspace Projects, Honolulu, HI
2016 – Through the Woods, Giant Robot 2, Los Angeles, CA
2014 – Terra, Gallery Nucleus, Los Angeles, CA
2013 – Cityscape Show III, George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2012 – The Hammer Museum Store, Los Angeles, CA
2010 – Art London, Bo Lee Gallery, London, UK
2009 – East of Eden, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery
2009 – Everything But the Kitschen Sync, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Residencies & Awards
2017 – Artist-in-Residence, White River National Forest, Aspen, CO
2015 – Artist-in-Residence, Denali National Park, Alaska
2016 – Public art commission, LA Metro x Descanso Gardens, Los Angeles, CA
2016 – Featured artist in Read This If You Want to Be Great at Drawing, Laurence King Publishing
2016 – American Illustration, 35th Edition
Collections (Selected)
Denali National Park, AK
White River National Forest, CO
MōDUS, Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia
Four Seasons Hotel, Washington D.C.
Four Seasons Resort Lana’i, Hawaii
The Houston Museum of Contemporary Art
Portland Art Museum
Blum Private Collection
Commissions & Collaborations
Novo Amor (album artwork)
Guthrie Theater
LA Metro
Fogland Wine / ClubW
Tia Mowry Cooking Show
J Skis Collaboration
Man Appears in the Holocene (film)
The New York Times
L.A. Weekly
Geffen Records
Press & Publications (Selected)
Editorial & Print
The New York Times
GQ Magazine
Juxtapoz
New American Paintings
ArtWeek
ArtReview
Drawing Magazine
NYArts
Los Angeles Magazine
American Art Collector
Los Angeles Times Magazine
TimeOut New York
Lucky Magazine
Online & Audio
The Jealous Curator (podcast & feature)
Booooooom
Supersonic Art
Designboom
My Modern Met
East Bay Express – Invisible Lands
Surface & Surface
Sp[a]ce Gallery YouTube Interview
Lives and works in Highland Park, Los Angeles, California
📧 [email protected]
📞 323.229.7939
📸 Instagram @brooks_salzwedel_art
📍 Studio visits available by request
🤝 Contact for collaborations and private viewings of new work.
Bio
Brooks is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work navigates the emotional terrain between nature, memory, and constructed environments. Using a self-developed process that layers resin, wax, graphite, acrylic, semi-transparent films and mixed media, he builds meditative, dreamlike compositions. Fog-laced forests, icy expanses, and fractured wildernesses emerge, subtly interrupted by industrial remnants, intimate symbols, and queer-coded artifacts—quiet echoes of identity and impermanence.
He received his BFA with honors from Art Center College of Design in 2004, launching his career with a solo debut at NewSpace Gallery. Since then, his work has been exhibited internationally and featured in museums including MOAH (Lancaster), the Hammer Museum, and MOCA Los Angeles. His solo show Rut in the Soil (2018) marked a turning point, where themes of isolation, loss, and environmental tension became deeply intertwined with his personal history and identity.
A former National Parks artist-in-residence at Denali and White River, Salzwedel draws on his deep love of quiet places and overlooked details. His pieces have been commissioned by musicians like Novo Amor and institutions like LA Metro and the Guthrie Theater. He’s spoken on his process and themes at Gonzaga University, MOAH, and other venues.
Now working from his home studio in Highland Park, Brooks is expanding his creative reach—exploring multimedia storytelling, curatorial collaborations, and immersive sculptural works. His recent iceberg and forest series pushes further into concepts of vulnerability, permanence, and queer ecology. Whether through intimate terrariums or monumental dreamscapes, Salzwedel’s work invites viewers to reflect on how we carry history, trauma, and beauty across shifting emotional and physical landscapes.
Education
2004 – BFA, Cum Laude, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA
Selected Solo & Three-Person Exhibitions
2025 – Three-person exhibition, AMcE Creative Arts, Seattle, WA (July)
2025 – Three-person exhibition, Benjamin Eck Gallery, Munich, Germany (September 16)
2024 – Embodiment, AMcE Creative Arts, Seattle, WA
2019 – Isolate / Don’t Isolate, Benjamin Eck Gallery, Munich, Germany
2018 – Rut in the Soil, MOAH (Museum of Art and History), Lancaster, CA, presented by Thinkspace Projects
2018 – Dust and Dawn, Foley Gallery, New York, NY
2018 – Lost Lands, Johansson Projects, Oakland, CA
2016 – Site-specific commission, Descanso Gardens via LA Metro, Los Angeles, CA
2014 – National Parks, Gbg Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2013 – Temporal Void, Johansson Projects, Oakland, CA
2012 – Of Steel, Cement & Earth, George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2010 – Bo Lee Gallery, Bath, United Kingdom
2009 – Phylum Kingdom, Black Maria Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2009 – Land Makers, Tinlark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2008 – Modern Soil, Black Maria Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2008 – By Fault of Its Own, Tinlark Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2007 – Ultra Autumn, R3 Gallery, San Diego, CA
2006 – Hidden, Black Maria Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006 – Halcyon, NewSpace Gallery, Hollywood, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 – Interpretations of Our Natural World, River Gallery, Ohio
2021 – ETA30, Nahcotta Gallery, New Hampshire
2021 – Tondo, Spoke Art, New York, NY
2021 – Other Nature, Foley Gallery, New York, NY
2021 – Creative Resource, Round Weather Gallery, Oakland, CA
2020 – Magnum Opus, Wanderlife Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2019 – Surreal Sublime, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art (SJICA), CA
2018 – Remembered / Imagined, Paradigm Gallery & Antler Gallery, Portland, OR
2018 – LAX/PDX, Antler Gallery x Thinkspace Projects, Portland & Los Angeles
2018 – Audio/Visual, Nahcotta Gallery, Portsmouth, NH
2017 – Forget What You Know, Sp[a]ce Gallery, Pasadena, CA
2017 – SCOPE Art Fair, with Thinkspace Projects, Miami, FL
2017 – LUSH, MAK Center, collaboration with Superjacent, Los Angeles, CA
2017 – Pow!Wow! Hawaii, Thinkspace Projects, Honolulu, HI
2016 – Through the Woods, Giant Robot 2, Los Angeles, CA
2014 – Terra, Gallery Nucleus, Los Angeles, CA
2013 – Cityscape Show III, George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2012 – The Hammer Museum Store, Los Angeles, CA
2010 – Art London, Bo Lee Gallery, London, UK
2009 – East of Eden, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery
2009 – Everything But the Kitschen Sync, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Residencies & Awards
2017 – Artist-in-Residence, White River National Forest, Aspen, CO
2015 – Artist-in-Residence, Denali National Park, Alaska
2016 – Public art commission, LA Metro x Descanso Gardens, Los Angeles, CA
2016 – Featured artist in Read This If You Want to Be Great at Drawing, Laurence King Publishing
2016 – American Illustration, 35th Edition
Collections (Selected)
Denali National Park, AK
White River National Forest, CO
MōDUS, Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia
Four Seasons Hotel, Washington D.C.
Four Seasons Resort Lana’i, Hawaii
The Houston Museum of Contemporary Art
Portland Art Museum
Blum Private Collection
Commissions & Collaborations
Novo Amor (album artwork)
Guthrie Theater
LA Metro
Fogland Wine / ClubW
Tia Mowry Cooking Show
J Skis Collaboration
Man Appears in the Holocene (film)
The New York Times
L.A. Weekly
Geffen Records
Press & Publications (Selected)
Editorial & Print
The New York Times
GQ Magazine
Juxtapoz
New American Paintings
ArtWeek
ArtReview
Drawing Magazine
NYArts
Los Angeles Magazine
American Art Collector
Los Angeles Times Magazine
TimeOut New York
Lucky Magazine
Online & Audio
The Jealous Curator (podcast & feature)
Booooooom
Supersonic Art
Designboom
My Modern Met
East Bay Express – Invisible Lands
Surface & Surface
Sp[a]ce Gallery YouTube Interview
© 2004-2024 Brooks Shane Salzwedel - All Rights Reserved.
All artwork and intellectual property protected by U.S. & International Law.. Copyright Statement/click here to read
All artwork and intellectual property protected by U.S. & International Law.. Copyright Statement/click here to read
