Latest Update: Dec 13, 24
National Lottery Support for Individual Artists Programme (SIAP) Travel Award
Extremely grateful and excited to share that I have been awarded the National Lottery Support for Individual Artists Programme (SIAP) Travel Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland!
This funding will support my first international solo-exhibition in early 2025, in Berlin, Germany! A huge thank you, as always to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland for their continued support of my artistic practice and for helping make this exciting project possible!
Dec 12, 24
Douglas Hyde Gallery Student Forum 2025
I am extremely excited to have been selected to be part of the Douglas Hyde Gallery Student Forum 2025, at Trinity College Dublin!
Nov 20, 24
Xeno-Futurism Feature
Delighted to contribute to Xeno-Futurism’s (@xeno_futurism) second issue “Technologies of Domination”. Xeno-Futurism is an experimental journal dedicated to critical theory from abstract perspectives, amplifying the margins.
From Xeno-Futurism:
“We are excited to introduce to you the contributors for issue 2 ‘Technologies of Domination’. We have a collection of incredible theory-fiction, essays, poetry, and artworks that delve into the complexities of cyborgian dilemmas, explore marginalised bodies as potential weapons against the Oculus (Capital’s omnipotent eye), critically analyse surveillance technologies, interrogate the immanence of the cybernetic phylum of Capital and its possibilities, as well as consequences, bring a deeply Daoist cosmotechnical approach to our relationship to technics lacking in European thought and envisioning speculative eco-social and decolonised xeno-futures. Through thorough examination, these essays challenge conventional ontologies and propose a radical rethinking of our interrelations with technology, technics and artificial intelligence.”
Nov 19, 24
Arts Council of Northern Ireland Interview
It was great to get speaking to Clare McComish, Visual Arts Officer at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland about QSS Artist Studios and Gallery to celebrate the 40th Anniversary as the longest running artist studios in Northern Ireland!
From the Arts Council of Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland’s longest running studio space for professional visual artists is celebrating its 40th birthday with a special exhibition featuring 61 works from past and present members. Supported by National Lottery Funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Queen Street Studios (QSS) is a home from home for a broad spectrum of visual artists, working across a range of mediums. The creative hub offers artists the privacy and peace of their own studio space, while also being a collective hub for meeting, collaboration and exhibition. Although once based on Queen Steet itself, today the studio occupies a large site on East Belfast’s Bloomfield Avenue, where the current exhibition, curated by Eamonn Maxwell, will be on display and open to the public until Thursday 12th December. Running across two floors, the vibrant, large-scale exhibition showcases the broad range of practices, from emerging and established artists, that have shaped Queen Street Studios as it is today.
Clare McComish, Visual Arts Officer at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, commented: “QSS has been at the very centre of visual arts development in Northern Ireland for four decades, a place where artists are nurtured and supported and where they have space to dedicate themselves to their practice. It has always been a place where we have seen established artists supporting other emerging artists, as they start to carve their own promising careers for themselves. This exhibition is a fitting tribute to QSS, as it was and as it is today, and a reflection of its artists, from its beginnings, to present day who have achieved local, national and international acclaim.”
Nov 18, 24
SOOT Feature
Super excited & honoured to have been invited by @sootworldas a featured artist!
From @sootworld : For over 50 years the linear scroll has been the only way to interact with visual information. SOOT is a new way of mapping information. It’s self organising, spatial and incredibly fast. SOOT @sootworld is a creative technology lab founded by artists and designers based in New York, with a curatorial board including founders and leads from Dazed (@dazed), New Museum (@newmuseum) & Dis Mag (@dis).
We’re building a new way of mapping information visually. Add hard drives, mood boards and websites to a self-organising space you control. So you can see and share everything.
Nov 7, 24
CLUB [CONSTRUCTION] vs ULSTER SPORTS CLUB! Opening
CLUB [CONSTRUCTION] vs ULSTER SPORTS CLUB ! is a solo-exhibition and experiential installation by Reuben Brown at Ulster Sports Club, Belfast, opening on November 7th at 6pm-Late.
Following “cloakroom” at club [construction] ! at DAS/Digital Art Studios, CLUB [CONSTRUCTION] vs ULSTER SPORTS CLUB ! stems from an ongoing research-project into queer club-culture. Originating from a fascination with the physical proximity between avant-garde queer club-communities with heterosexual working-class sports clubs in industrial Western-European port cities, the show explores the unexpected cultural phenomena that emerges when these seemingly opposing worlds collide.
Oct 31, 24
*-* at Catalyst Arts
I am extremely excited and honoured to have been invited by Catalyst Arts Co-Director, Husk Bennett to contribute to their Director’s Show in Catalyst Arts. On Saturday, November 2, from 6pm Catalyst Arts will host a special closing event for their current show “*-*”.
From Husk Bennett / Catalyst Arts:
Aligning with the show’s interrogation into artist-led practice and output, varying forms of creative labour and how we utilise / navigate spaces, we’re super excited to have the opportunity to be joined by Tailtiu, Son Zept, mima, Acid Guy and to invite Reuben Brown to install a new immersive visual experience responing to “*-*”, as part of the 175th anniversary of Belfast School of Art. This project is supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland through the National Lottery, Rí-Rá Irish Lager, the Belfast School of Art, and is curated by Catalyst Arts Co-Director Husk Bennett.
Oct 28, 24
CLUB [CONSTRUCTION] vs ULSTER SPORTS CLUB! Announcement
CLUB [CONSTRUCTION] vs ULSTER SPORTS CLUB ! is a solo-exhibition and experiential installation by Reuben Brown at Ulster Sports Club, Belfast, opening on November 7th at 6pm-Late.
Following “cloakroom” at club [construction] ! at DAS/Digital Art Studios, CLUB [CONSTRUCTION] vs ULSTER SPORTS CLUB ! stems from an ongoing research-project into queer club-culture. Originating from a fascination with the physical proximity between avant-garde queer club-communities with heterosexual working-class sports clubs in industrial Western-European port cities, the show explores the unexpected cultural phenomena that emerges when these seemingly opposing worlds collide.
Inspired by a queered interpretation of Jean-Pierre Faye’s ‘Horseshoe Theory’, CLUB [CONSTRUCTION] vs ULSTER SPORTS CLUB ! blurs the props, codes and practiced pageantry of hyper-masculinity, sports-spectatorship and fan-culture, with the camp extravagance of queer masculinity, diva-worship and the queer club-space. Faye’s theory suggests that extreme opposites in a linear continuum - such as hyper-male heterosexuality and flamboyant queer masculinity - do not polarise but curve towards each other, revealing surprising parallels in their aesthetic theatricality and performance.
CLUB [CONSTRUCTION] vs ULSTER SPORTS CLUB ! utilises a combination of sculptural interjections and a series of experimental films. Strategically poised within Ulster Sports Club’s upstairs bar, the Committee Room, these investigate the theatricality of rehearsed masculinity and the trained rituals of sports-spectatorship in conjunction with the spectacle of diva-worship, realness and queer machismo in the shadow of internalised homophobia. CLUB [CONSTRUCTION] vs ULSTER SPORTS CLUB ! invites the audiences to grab a seat at the bar and witness how these opposing worlds twist, fold and fade into each other in unexpected ways.
Oct 24, 24
QSS Artist Studios and Gallery 40th Anniversary Member’s Show
My work “club [construction] SUPERHOOLIGANISM” is featured in QSS Artist Studios and Gallery’s 40th Anniversary Member’s Show. The show is open Monday-Thursday and runs until December 12th, 2024.
Oct 16, 24
Royale Arcade Academy Documentation
Thrilled to share some documentation from Royale Arcade Academy at Arcade Gallery and Studios which opened earlier in the month in Belfast. The show runs until Friday 1st November, so make sure to drop down.
Oct 3, 24
INFERNO at Colour Factory
Super excited to debut a new film “FLUORESCENT” at INFERNO at Colour Factory in London tomorrow!
The film has been created with support from INFERNO (@inferno_london) through the INFERNO Residency Program 2024, and wouldn’t have been possible without the love & support from Lewis G. Burton (@lewisgburton) & everyone behind INFERNO <3.
The film hopes to explore various transient club-spaces from Ireland and the United Kingdom over the last few decades, with a particular focus towards that of Banbridge, in Northern Ireland. by examining queer and queer-adjacent club-ephemera, “FLUORESCENT” dances between the fleeting and transitory County Down club-spaces of the past, present, and the imagined future (…?).
Sep 16, 24
Royale Arcade Academy
Very excited to have my new film “glory (in two parts)” included in Arcade Gallery and Studios’ third annual “Royale Arcade Academy”, opening on October 3rd 2024 on Late Night Art.
“glory” stems from the findings of a long term research project into the histories of queer club-culture, originating from a fascinating adjacency of avant-garde queer club-communities with heterosexual working class sports clubs in industrial Western-European cities (such as London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Manchester and Belfast), and the strange, occasional, cultural phenomena of these polarising club sub-cultures merging as a result of their close proximity.
The two channels of “glory” are screened simultaneously, side by side as they explore diva-worship, celebrity, fandom and spectatorship. Inspired by a queered-interpretation of Jean-Pierre Faye’s “Horseshoe Theory” that claims that extreme opposites in a linear continuum closely resemble each other, “glory” blurs the props, codes and indicators of hyper-masculinity, fandom, sports-spectatorship and fan-culture, with the camp extravagance of queer masculinity and the queer club-space.
This film has become the starting point for a new body of work which will be presented in an exciting upcoming exhibition this winter…⏳
Aug 31, 24
INFERNO Residency Announcement
From INFERNO: DIVAS! We’re happy to announce the INFERNO Residency Program Winners for our next event on Friday 4th October! 🔥
Performance Artist: Silas Grocott Cain [they/she] @silas.gc is a trans-femme artist and choreographer born in Bristol and now based in London. She is the founder of PUSSYBOY collective which produces improvisational performances and contemporary choreographies inspired by all things natural, queer, and naturally queer. (picture by @lucavenart)
Collective: NEUROTICA @neurotica.club is a hot new rave run by trans people for trans people, with extra lasers. From heavyweight headliners like I. JORDAN and LCY to local legends, you can count on them for a stacked, all-trans lineup and a guaranteed vibe.
Visual Artist: Reuben Brown [he/him] @reubenbrownartist is an emerging visual artist and curator currently based in Belfast, N.Ireland, specialising in 3D-CGI (computer-generated) animation and filmography, interactive and experiential installation and performance.
Aug 30, 24
INFERNO Residency
I am absolutely ecstatic to annouce that I have been awarded a place on the INFERNO Residency Program in October 2024. INFERNO are a queer rave collective, turned performance art platform based in London. With support from INFERNO and Lewis G Burton, the founder, I will be developing a new video work “FLUORESCENT” for exhibition at INFERNO at Colour Factory in Hackney Wick, London.
20 Aug, 24
Launch of CCA Window Texts in collaboration with Emma Brennan
CCA Window Texts: ‘It Is & I Am.’ Written by Emma Brennan and designed by Reuben Brown
Until Monday 2 September 2024
Viewable from CCA’s windows, and can be collected at CCA
Launched during Foyle Pride, our next window text commission featured text by Emma Brennan, developed through conversation within the community of Queer and Feminist artists and Cultural practitioners. Reuben’s design uses monochromatic fluorescent pink for its cultural connections with the LGBTQ+ community. The image shows bodies in embrace, exploring ephemeral energies of space, bodies and identities.
👋 Emma Brennan is an interdisciplinary artist who works predominantly in performative practices to include multi-media installation, moving image and collaborative processes. Based between Belfast and Dublin.
👋 Reuben Brown is an emerging visual artist and curator currently based in Belfast, specialising in 3D-CGI (computer-generated) animation and filmography, interactive and experiential installation and performance. He is the founder and curator of emerging Belfast-based scenography, visual arts and ephemeral architecture collective, “club [construction]”
This Window Text is part of the 2024 Queer Art Trail for Foyle Pride Festival 2024.
🤝 With thanks to Derry Print Workshop, who print each Window Text as a risograph edition. This project is made possible thanks to support from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Derry City & Strabane District Council and Art Fund.
13 Aug, 24
An Chomhairle Ealaíon - The Agility Award
I am extremely grateful to annouce I have been awarded the Agility Award from An Chomhairle Ealaíon / The Arts Council. This funding will support the development of an ongoing project, as I navigate new exciting processes, artforms and technologies.
2 Jul, 24
GHHH Magazine Launch at ArtSect Gallery
I am very excited to annouce that I will be screening some experimental film work at GHHH Magazine’s Launch for “THIS IS SO HUMAN” at ArtSect Gallery in London on 5th July 2024. The film will be screened within a collection of other incredible artist’s work between 6pm and 11.30pm.
28 Jun, 24
Dublin Modular Pride Exhibition at Pallas Projects + Studios
Honoured to be featured in Dublin Modular’s Pride Exhibition “Chosen Family” at Pallas Projects + Studios in Dublin this summer. The project has been created in collaboration with Dublin Modular, Pallas Projects + Studios, An Chomhairle Ealaíon / The Arts Council, GCN Magazine and Dublin Pride.
From Dublin Modular : As previously mentioned our Pride theme this year is „Chosen Family“. Chosen Family being a common term among the queer community (and others). We’re focusing on that network of friends and loved ones that share mutual support, acceptance, and understanding they may not receive from their biological families. Continuing on with this theme we’ve curated and gathered a selection of local Queer artists from our Open Call Applications. And are delighted to share this community focused exhibition highlighting these queer artists with you.
1 Jun, 24
One Year of club [construction]
To celebrate 365 days and a lap around the sun since the launch of “club [construction]”, my debut solo-exhibition at Arcade Gallery and Studios, I have shared some unseen photographs on film, captured by Karl Magee (@bits._) on my Instagram, the post is linked below;
16 May, 24
SPECTRUM Documentary Film
Supported by the Arts Council of Ireland through the Late Night Event Pilot Programme:“From 10pm to 3am, Rua Red Gallery will come alive with an electrifying program, spotlighting some of Ireland’s most exceptional talents in electronic music and visual arts. Spectrum aims to provide an inclusive platform for underrepresented artists, celebrating the potential of Ireland’s night-time economy and diversifying the ways in which audiences can engage with gallery spaces.
This instalment of the Spectrum series will feature a music lineup programmed by Dublin Modular, one of Ireland’s leading electronic music collectives, with live performance & DJ sets from renowned artists such as R. Kitt, poly, DJ Egg, Tomonori, Jack Foster, Tadhg K, and dance performance artist Nick Libra. Complementing the sonic experience is newly commissioned work by sculptor and 3D-CGI artist Reuben Brown, inviting attendees to reimagine the possibilities of late-night cultural engagement.”
Huge thank you to Dublin Modular , Rua Red , SoFFt Productions & everyone involved in the project