Sikkema Jenkins & Co. is pleased to announce an exhibition of drawings by Trisha Brown, opening May 9th and running through June 19th. The exhibition marks the artist’s first major gallery show.

While best known for her career as an avant-garde dancer and choreographer, Brown has consistently sought to integrate the visual arts with her performance practice. She has collaborated with artists on set and costume designs for her performances, including the likes of Robert Rauschenberg, but for many years she has also been producing her own body of work that melds the art of dance and the visual arts.

Spanning over three decades, the drawings featured in the exhibition range from early conceptual-schematic works from the 1970s and 80s, later drawings of hands and feet, as well as works from Brown’s most recent series entitled It’s a Draw, which physically record the artist’s movements. As in her dances, Brown sets a strict set of rules for her drawing practice. Rather than acting as a limiting factor, these rules provide a source for innovation. The drawings will be accompanied by video of Brown’s performances as well as video documentation of the series It’s a Draw.

Trisha Brown was born in Aberdeen, Washington in 1936. She received a B.A. in dance form Mills College in 1958 and later received a D.F.A. from Bates College in 2000. After moving to New York in 1961, Brown became a founding member of the Judson Dance Theater where she worked with experimental dancers. Yvonne Rainer and Steve Paxton. In 1970 she cofounded the dance collective Grand Union and formed the Trisha Brown Dance Company.

Over the course of her career, Brown has received numerous awards. In 1991, she became the first woman choreographer to receive the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and she was presented the National Medal of Arts in 2003. Brown was also named Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France in 1988; was elevated to Officier in 2000; and then to Commandeur in 2004, the highest level awarded.