Art: American Drury Brennan fuses jazz and calligraphy in extraordinary new work

Date
8 July 2013

I’m going to put this out there – Drury Brennan is an absolute dude. Let’s consider the evidence. 1.The Minneapolis-based artist used to be jazz drummer. 2. HIs latest project in Berlin combines his musical passions with his interest in calligraphy and street lettering. 3. His name is Drury Brennan. 4. When he writes about his work on his site, he uses jazz terminology.

Observe: "Jazz improvisation is high-stakes art in the sense that you constantly push your creative process while others listen along for the ride – to take melodic risks in front of an audience. Graffiti and Zen calligraphy are two writing systems that deploy similar sets of aesthetics and conviction in gesture as in jazz.

“I sought to explore the possibilities of mixing all three of these art forms together, to use Roman letterforms as the back beat while I solo the tale of each letter’s construction. Each piece’s content is a short-form poetic meditation on a variety of subjects, from loss to love to contemporary art. Ultimately the work is about untangling preconceptions about letters, form, writing and art, and recombining them to create new, pretty possibilities for writing to come.”

The resulting works are stunning visual delights, almost overwhelming in their layered detail and intricate construction – we love them.

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Drury Brennan: Word Jazz (poster)

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Drury Brennan: Word Jazz

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Drury Brennan: Word Jazz

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Drury Brennan: Word Jazz

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Drury Brennan: Word Jazz

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Drury Brennan: Word Jazz

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Drury Brennan: Word Jazz

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Drury Brennan: Word Jazz

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About the Author

Rob Alderson

Rob joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in July 2011 before becoming Editor-in-Chief and working across all editorial projects including itsnicethat.com, Printed Pages, Here and Nicer Tuesdays. Rob left It’s Nice That in June 2015.

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