About Gena
Gena Brodie Robbins was born in Macon, Georgia, and raised in Tifton. She began her higher education at the University of Southern Maine and later graduated with a BFA in Art Education from Valdosta State University in 1995. She then earned her MFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD). Prior to her graduate studies, Brodie honed her fine art skills through various workshops at The Scottsdale Artists’ School in Arizona and The Art Students’ League in New York City.
While pursuing her MFA at SCAD, she received the New York Studio Space Scholarship at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York and completed internships at the Triangle Artist Workshop in Brooklyn and Exit Art Gallery in New York City.
After finishing her internships and graduating from SCAD, Brodie co-founded and directed the Hollingsworth Gallery in Palm Coast, Florida, where she curated international and national exhibitions featuring renowned artists such as Ilker Yardimski, Patrick McGrath Muniz, Matthew Litteken, and Greg Fugua. During her time in Florida, she received the Richard Dean Andruk Award from the Florida Artist’s Group, curated by Sam Gilliam.
Most recently, Brodie served as Curator and Director of Galleries at Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia, where she managed the university's Permanent Art Collection and developed exhibition programs, including solo shows for internationally acclaimed artists like Paul Paiement, Riccarda de Eccher, and Alexi Torres. She has also taught drawing and design courses as a part-time professor at SCAD and worked as a certified art teacher in both Georgia and Florida. Additionally, she contributed to Unclaimed Freight Productions and Meddin Studios, creating portraits and props for the feature film "Savannah," directed by Annette Heyward-Carter.
Brodie is primarily known for her large-scale mixed media works that explore the ephemeral nature of existence through bold, aggressive strokes of color, alongside the dynamic interplay of imagery. She has exhibited in China, Scotland, France, and the U.S., and her work is widely collected. Notable solo and group exhibitions include The Leepa-Rattner Museum in Tampa, Limner Gallery in Hudson, The Phoenix Center for the Arts in Phoenix, Tifton Museum of Art and Heritage, Valdosta National at Valdosta State University, Gutstein Gallery in Savannah, and several others across Georgia. Currently, Brodie is preparing to open a new workspace and gallery in the Starland District of Savannah, Georgia.
Statement
Questions of persona, identity, and the effects of time, loss, resilience, and the transformation that follows are central to the content of my work. Change is constant, and the metamorphosis involved is filled with transitional elements that serve as both direct and indirect means of transportation into new states of existence. These elements are explored through responsive mark-making; the result of moments spent in contemplation and query concerning the effects of time, life cycles, and various states of flux within these circles of being.
Throughout each painting, repeated loops of painted, fluid lines, and aggressive drawn marks enter the picture plane. These invading lines are wiped out and brought back, covering and uncovering past decisions. Through this erosion of paint, a transfiguration begins. Transparent layers of color and lines reveal parts of earlier imagery, varying from recognizable shapes such as the human or animal figure to non-recognizable, even ambiguous forms. This imagery, later in the painting process, causes an intuitive reaction to either accept, destroy, or alter its existence - symbolic of the destruction of a species, environment, loss of a loved one, or even the loss of self, such as with age or illness.
Swirling, loop-like forms invade the surface, similar to the way living cells are at times modified by manmade and natural forces. These processes are investigated through a variety of mixed media and mark-making tools, such as spray paint, rags, squeegees, paint, polymers, markers, charcoal, and graphite.
Once the ritual of painting has been completed, an awareness of transformation materializes, and a new state of consciousness and understanding is reached.