Flo Brooks
Flo Brooks is a painter of modern life. His practice can be considered as a revising of traditional genre painting: at the very centre of each painting is a personal reflection on work, leisure and the in-between. Speaking of his approach, Brooks has said: “It feels fundamental to think critically about the ways we connect with each other, and what this might look like in our own lives. I make sense of things through lived experience, through intimate relationships and the communities I’m part of, whether that’s the rural community I grew up in, queer and trans communities, art networks or my blood family”.
Working with acrylic on shaped wooden panels, the compositions of his paintings literally burst at the seams sprawling across the gallery walls. For his recent touring exhibition, Angletwich, that opened at Brighton CCA, presented a suite of paintings set within a unique sculptural installation for the first time. Drawing from his own experience growing up in the rural Southwest, the works centre on a series of rural archetypes; from a livestock fair and the post office, to a lonely bus stop, generating a simultaneous sense of familiarity and isolation. Each work in the exhibition is part of a wider whole; depicting characters, scenes and places which together develop a critical narrative of place and queer experience in Britain.
Brooks recently presented his second solo exhibition at Project Native Informant, Be tru to your rec, a series of paintings depicting the changing landscape of a British recreation ground.
Flo Brooks recently opened his first public artwork, Inner Bark Out, commissioned by Clapham Public Realm Programme and Studio Voltaire, as well as a solo exhibition at Spike Island, Harmonycrumb.

Installation View
Flo Brooks
Inner Bark Out, 2023
Clapham, London (Permanent Installation commissioned by Studio Voltaire)

Installation View
Flo Brooks
Detail: Inner Bark Out, 2023
Clapham, London (Permanent Installation commissioned by Studio Voltaire)

Installation View
Flo Brooks
Detail: Inner Bark Out, 2023
Clapham, London (Permanent Installation commissioned by Studio Voltaire)

Installation View
Flo Brooks
Be tru to your rec, 2022
Project Native Informant, London

Flo Brooks
END OF THE WORLD
2022
Acrylic on wood
128 x 118 x 3.5 cm
50 3/8 x 46 1/2 x 1 3/8 in

Flo Brooks
Hold me hold my placard
2022
Acrylic on wood
180 x 109 x 3.5 cm
70 7/8 x 42 7/8 x 1 3/8 in

Installation View
Flo Brooks
Be tru to your rec, 2022
Project Native Informant, London

Flo Brooks
The bramble
2022
Acrylic on wood
152 x 200 x 3.5 cm
59 7/8 x 78 3/4 x 1 3/8 in

Installation View
Flo Brooks
Angletwich, 2021
Tramway, Glasgow

Installation View
Flo Brooks
Angletwich, 2021
Tramway, Glasgow

Installation View
Flo Brooks
Angletwich, 2021
Tramway, Glasgow

Installation View
Flo Brooks
Kiss my Genders, 2019
Hayward Gallery, London

Installation View
Flo Brooks
Kiss my Genders, 2019
Hayward Gallery, London

Installation View
Flo Brooks
Scrubbers, 2018
Project Native Informant, London

Flo Brooks
YessSIR! Back off! Tell me who I am again?!
2018
Acrylic on wood
197 x 177 x 4.5 cm
77 1/2 x 69 3/4 x 1 3/4 in

Flo Brooks
Detail: YessSIR! Back off! Tell me who I am again?!
2018
Acrylic on wood
197 x 177 x 4.5 cm
77 1/2 x 69 3/4 x 1 3/4 in

Flo Brooks
Butts Only (That's the sound that lonely makes)
2018
Acrylic on wood
109 x 136 x 4.5 cm
42 7/8 x 53 1/2 x 1 3/4 in

Installation View
Flo Brooks
Is now a good time?, 2017
Cubitt, London

Flo Brooks
Yes I am too, but who am I really?, 2017
2017
Acrylic on wood
60 x 52 x 2 cm
23 5/8 x 20 1/2 x 3/4 in
Solo Exhibitions
Group Shows
Flo Brooks
Bodies in Space
MIRROR, Plymouth

Flo Brooks, Juliana Huxtable
Kiss My Genders
Hayward Gallery, London

Flo Brooks
Survey
Jerwood Arts, London

DIS, Flo Brooks, Hal Fischer, Harumi Yamaguchi, ...
LISTE 2018
LISTE, Basel

Flo Brooks, Morag Keil, Sean Steadman
Frieze London 2018
Frieze, London
