BROOKS TURNER is an artist, writer, and educator living and working in Minneapolis, MN.
EDUCATION
University of California, Los Angeles, Master of Fine Arts, 2015
Amherst College, Bachelor of Arts Cum Laude, 2012
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
Chair of Visual Art Department, St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, St. Paul, MN, 2020 to present
Adjunct Faculty, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN, 2018 to present
Lecturer, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, MN, 2021 to present
Temporary Part-Time Faculty in Art, Ridgewater College, Willmar, MN, Fall, 2019
Research Assistant to Charles Ray, Los Angeles, CA, 2015 to 2017
Instructor and Teaching Assistant, University of California, Los Angeles, 2014 to 2015
EXHIBITIONS
Solo and Two-Person:
2024 Forthcoming, Hair + Nails, Minneapolis, MN
2021 Order and Discipline, Ridgewater College, Willmar and Hutchinson Campuses, MN
2020 Legends and Myths of Ancient Minnesota, Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Uncanny Familiarities of Scenes and People, Kiehl Gallery, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN
2018 The Bridge, with Tamara Anne Turner, Lillian Davis Hogan Gallery at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, Winona, MN
2017 Terrestrial Outlines, with Tamara Anne Turner, College of the Redwoods, Eureka, CA
2013 Black Hole in Process, performance, Ryan Education Center, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Group:
2023 MCAD-Jerome Emerging Artist Exhibition, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN
2022 Jerome Book Artists in Residence Exhibition, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Faculty Exhibition, Kiehl Gallery, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN
2020 Untitled #16, juried by Natalie Bell, Soo Visual Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN
2017 All the Small Things, Steve Turner Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
2015 Only by Analogy, East and Peggy Phelps Galleries, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA
MFA #2, New Wight Gallery, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
2014 MFA 2015, New Wight Gallery, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Now Trending, juried, Palos Verdes Art Center, Palos Verdes, CA
2013 &again&again, Chicago Art Department, Chicago, IL
Collection, Gallery Seven Nine, Chicago, IL
On the Precipice, Zhou B Art Center, Chicago, IL
Copy.right? juried, Gallery 33, Zhou B Art Center, Chicago, IL
Night Lights, juried, Gallery Twenty-Two, Berwyn, IL
2012 Majestic National, 2012, juried, Majestic Galleries, Nelsonville, OH
Thesis Show, Eli Marsh Gallery, Amherst College, Amherst, MA
2011 Black and White, juried, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn, NY
LECTURES AND ARTIST TALKS
2022 Artist Talk: MCBA/Jerome Arts Residency XVI, Minnesota Center for Book Arts
2021 Minneapolis Walking Tour of the Sites of Fascism, for Art Mob, Weisman Art Museum
2020 Panel: How Will We Know Fascism When We See It? With Caroline Sinders and Christopher Lehman, Weisman Art Museum
Artist Talk: The Aesthetics of Fascism, Weisman Art Museum, in conjunction with Legends and Myths of Ancient Minnesota
Artist Talk, St. Cloud State University, in conjunction with Uncanny Familiarities of Scenes and People
2017 “Visiting Artist Lecture: Brooks and Tamara Turner,” in conjunction with “Terrestrial Outlines,” College of the Redwoods, Eureka, CA
2015 “Explorations in Cosmic Materialism,” in conjunction with the launch of Graphite Interdisciplinary Journal of the Arts, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
PUBLICATIONS AS AUTHOR
Books
A Guide to Charles Ray Sleeping Mime (Los Angeles: Paperleaf press, 2017).
Black Hole in Process: Cygnus X-1 (Los Angeles: Self Published and distributed during MFA 2015, 2014).
Black Hole in Process: Perseus (Chicago: Self published and distributed by the Ryan Education Center at the Art Institute of Chicago, 2013).
Essays
“Candice Lin: Seeping, Rotting, Resting, Weeping,” Art Papers, December, 2021, https://www.artpapers.org/candice-lin-seeping-rotting-resting-weeping/
“New History Painting: Greg Rick’s The Dancing Plague,” H+N Zine 28 (2021)
“Ghosts in the Archive: Jonathan Herrera Soto at Hair and Nails,” H+N Zine 27 (2021)
“The Sublimation of the Mound: Lamia Abukhadra’s The Shape of Thin Air,” H+N Zine 27 (2021)
“Alexa Horochowski: Nomeacuerdo (I-don’t-remember-land),” Art Papers, March 24th, 2021, https://www.artpapers.org/alexa-horochowski-nomeacuerdo-i-dont-remember-land/
“American Fascism as an Aesthetic Experience,” MN Artists, Walker Art Center, January 26th, 2021, https://mnartists.walkerart.org/american-fascism-as-aesthetic-experience
“Some Thoughts on Perception, Illusion, and Knots,” H+N Zine 26 (2021).
“Topographies of Vision and History: Kim Benson’s Hell Daisy in Relief,” H+N Zine 25 (2020).
“Reversing Reversals: Scenes and Results,” H+N Zine 23 (2020).
“Some Thoughts on the Poetics of Home,” TEMP/reviews, TEMP/MPLS, May 21st, 2020, http://tempmpls.com/temp-reviews/tempthumbnail/
“Matter, Mind, Death, and Time,” TEMP/reviews, TEMP/MPLS, February 16th, 2020, http://tempmpls.com/tempthumbnailbart/
“Non-Verbal Incantations,” TEMP/reviews, TEMP/MPLS, February 16th, 2020, http://tempmpls.com/tempthumbquinn/
“Alienation and Selfportraiture in Personal Record and Interpolation,” H+N Zine 22 (2020): https://hairandnailsart.com/magazine/issue-22/
“Back to the Future Future,” H+N Zine 21 (2020): https://hairandnailsart.com/magazine/issue-21/
“Unknown Function: Questioning the Art Object through Liquidation and Estuary,” H+N Zine 20 (2019): https://hairandnailsart.com/magazine/issue-20/
“Physicality, Theatricality, and Embodiment in Soft/Hard Surface/Sound,” H+N Zine 19 (2019): https://hairandnailsart.com/magazine/issue-19/
“Seeing and Reseeing: Jealousy at Hair and Nails,” H+N Zine 18 (2019): https://hairandnailsart.com/magazine/issue-18/
“The Body, Labor, and History in Catherine Sullivan’s The Startled Faction,” H+N Zine 17 (2019): https://hairandnailsart.com/magazine/issue-17/
“Permeable Bodies in ‘ardcore, a thing like you and me,” H+N Zine 17 (2019): https://hairandnailsart.com/magazine/issue-17/
“Molds, Supports, and Surfaces in Lost and Found,” H+N Zine 17 (2019): https://hairandnailsart.com/magazine/issue-17/
“In Brilliant Color: Some Thoughts on the Pedagogical Relationship Between Screen Time and Self Love,” H+N Zine 16 (2019): https://hairandnailsart.com/magazine/issue-16/
“Unreally Real: On Ryan Fontaine’s The Utmost Natural,” H+N Zine 15 (2019): https://hairandnailsart.com/magazine/issue-15/
“Notes on an Installation: Crater of a Home, Corner of a Mind,” New German Review 27 (2016).
“Selections from ‘Black Hole in Process: Cygnus X-1,’” Graphite Interdisciplinary Journal of the Arts 6 (2015).
PRESS
Lois Thielin, “How American Fascism Inspired the Holocaust,” St. Cloud Times, 1/4/21: https://www.sctimes.com/story/opinion/2021/01/04/how-american-fascism-inspired-holocaust/4131329001/
Alicia Eler, “Artist Digs into Minnesota’s Forgotten History of Fascism,” Star Tribune, 11/15/20: https://www.startribune.com/artist-digs-into-minnesota-s-forgotten-history-of-fascism/573066222/?refresh=true
Jeff Carmack, “The Untold Story of the History of Fascism in Minnesota as an Art Exhibit by Brooks Turner,” Interview for The Untold History of Minnesota podcast, aired on KVSC, 10/20/20: https://www.kvsc.org/podcast/the-untold-story-of-the-history-of-fascism-in-minnesota-as-an-art-exhibit-by-brooks-taylor/
Frankie Carlson, “In Precarious Times, Jewish Arts Council Continues Funding,” The Minnesota Daily, 9/16/2020: https://mndaily.com/262264/arts-entertainment/jewish-arts-council-project-funding-faces-uncertain-future/
“Landscapes in Cement,” Times Standard, 2/9/17: https://www.times-standard.com/2017/02/09/landscapes-in-cement/
Kelsey Rocha, “Graduate Students Showcase Works in Second of MFA Exhibition Series,” Daily Bruin, 4/6/15: https://dailybruin.com/2015/04/06/graduate-students-showcase-works-in-second-of-mfa-exhibition-series
FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS, AND GRANTS
Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, Jerome Foundation, 2023-25
MCAD-Jerome Fellowship for Early Career Artists, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 2021-22
Jerome Book Arts Residency, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, 2021-22
Target Studio Artist-in-Residence, Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, 2020
Project Support Grant, Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council, 2020
Humanities Innovation Lab, Minnesota Humanities Center, 2020
Artist Initiative Grant, Minnesota State Arts Board, 2020
George A. Plimpton Fellowship, Amherst College, 2012
4th Semiannual competition, Dave Bown Projects, 2012
Athanasios Demetrios Skouras Prize, Amherst College, 2012
Alpha Delta Phi Fund and the David P. Patchel Memorial Fund, Amherst College, 2012
Dean of Faculty Student Research Fellowship, Amherst College, 2011