Javier Brewster Brockmann (b. Providence, R.I., U.S.A. 1970) Brewster Brockmann stands out in many ways as an artist, but one of the most obvious is in the way he is equally proficient at creating paintings and sculptures, many of which have the feeling of ancient pieces in a museum of anthropology. The paintings offer the themes of nature one might expect from an artist living in a jungle setting at the foot of a mountain and next to a river emptying into the ocean 150 yards away. Titles of the works such as, “Niño con Cocodrilo/Child with Alligator,” “Tejon/Sloth” and “Papillon/Butterfly” reflect this interest that started as a boy but was later focused by a BA degree in biology with a minor in botany at Bennington College in Vermont. An MFA in ceramics at Michigan’s prestigious Cranbrook Institute followed, where Brewster was a teaching assistant. Upon graduation he was awarded a fellowship in the Kohler Corporation`s Artist in Industry Program, where he was able to use their facilities for fabricating bath tubs and fixtures to create primitive looking monkey figures in cast iron. Two of these are in the permanent collection of the Kohler Museum of Modern art. After returning to Mexico, Brewster taught workshops of graduate students who would come down from Cranbrook Institute and the Rhode Island School of Design to learn the classic techniques he practices, from digging his own clay and forming designs with a coils of the clay to firing it in a wood fired adobe kiln he made himself. His work is part of major collections such as, John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI, U.S.A., Robert and Karen Duncan, Lincoln, NE, U.S.A., Ron Mann, Sonoma, CA, U.S.A., John and Anne Marion, Fortworth, TX, Santa Fe, NM, U.S.A., Karen Lauder, New York, NY, U.S.A., Alejandro Colunga, Guadalajara, Mexico, Sherry and Ken Fisher, Woodside CA, U.S.A. He currently lives and works in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
