Born Long Island, NY Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY EDUCATION 2012 MFA Fine Arts, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY 2009 BFA Painting and Drawing, Magna Cum Laude; SUNY New Paltz, New Paltz, NY. Andrew Brischler explores what he calls “the pathology of abstraction” in his own mixed-media canvases, in which he ranges through the many manifestations of this mode of painting, foregrounding its enduring beauty while questioning its seriousness. On battered, stained canvases, he paints hard-edged, minimalist forms weighted down by the thickness of their own paint; saturated fields of graded color, too rainbow-like to suggest sublimity; and abstract expressionistic scribbles and brushstrokes that appear either absurdly meek or exaggerated. By working such intentional awkwardness and humor into his compositions, and titling his paintings after song lyrics, pop cultural events, and lines from movies, Brischler simultaneously references and rejects the storied history of 20th-century abstraction. Claiming, “Abstract painting can get really heavy with reference and psychological baggage,” he posits a lighter vision of abstraction for the 21st century in his own works