Brian DeGraw’s The Leaning Y draws on memory, rhythm, and movement to probe the space between instinct and intention. The earliest work—"Have A NiCe DAY"—captures a childhood gesture in thick brown strokes over cerulean, evoking a raw, preconscious creativity. Rooted in 1970s suburban textures and domestic iconography, DeGraw’s paintings excavate that terrain, reclaiming spontaneity as a source of artistic invention. Across his large-scale oil works, sharp lines collide with gestural sweeps, while a recurring serpentine line slices through surfaces—both destroying and revealing. These compositions conjure the improvisational volatility of free jazz: sudden turns, silences, and bursts of ecstatic motion.
Now based in New York, DeGraw is a self-taught, multidisciplinary artist and founding member of Gang Gang Dance. His work has been presented widely at major museums and galleries, and is held in significant public and private collections worldwide.
