Bryn Gormley's art begins with a question. For him, making art is a way of reaching thoughts and feelings that are difficult to access through words. His work is colorful, layered, and intuitive, using abstraction to process emotion, memory, curiosity, and uncertainty.
Gormley discovered art as a teenager, at a time when verbal expression felt difficult. Drawing and painting offered a new kind of freedom. In his late teens and early twenties, he made thousands of works and experienced a period of intense creative growth.
In his twenties, Gormley opened an art gallery in Brooklyn, New York, focused on local artists. Over five years, the gallery presented nearly forty exhibitions and showed the work of more than one hundred artists, becoming part of the Williamsburg and Greenpoint art community. During this time, Gormley continued making his own large, colorful oil paintings.
After stepping away from art for many years, Gormley returned through an unexpected medium. While working in a sign shop in San Francisco, he began using leftover scraps of colored vinyl to make small abstract panels. Over the next seven years, he created more than five hundred of these works and found that the process was also a way to share art with others.
More recently, Gormley returned to painting, beginning with acrylic versions of some of his favorite vinyl collages. His current work reflects a long path away from and back toward making. It is rooted in abstraction, personal history, and the belief that art can help us access parts of ourselves that words cannot always reach.
A visual archive of Naked Duck Gallery, an independent Williamsburg art space founded in 2002 by Bryn Gormley and Alex Charner.
A practical experiment in reducing toxicity, improving control over materials, and using handmade paint to complete a commissioned painting.
A hands-on workshop built around simple vinyl art kits, shared materials, and open-ended creative play.
A climbing wall constructed for a loft apartment using six UV-printed, CNC-routed plywood panels with adjustable holds.
Five years at Fastsigns San Francisco covering sales, management, design, printing, and installation.
Oil paintings, charcoal drawings, and a lithograph made while living in Brooklyn. Works range from 4×6 to 60×96 inches on stretched cotton canvas.
Environmental graphics and exterior signage design for a theater, navigating strict tenant guidelines to create a cohesive wayfinding system.
Freelance and full-time work as a set carpenter, fabricator, scenic painter, and production manager across 17 production companies and hundreds of projects.