Brennan Conaway

Brennan Conaway is a Portland-based artist with strong ties to Tokyo. He makes sculpture based on extensive research into the peculiarities of a site, history, or concept. Brennan is currently an artist-in-residence at the Center for Land Use Interpretation in the high desert of Wendover, Utah, where he will work on occasional projects through 2009.

Brennan is also involved with public art projects in Portland. RACC selected him as a public artist for their 2007-2009 Design Team Roster, and he was a finalist for the Swan Island Station public art project in 2007. In 2006, Brennan designed and built a temporary public artwork — “Project B-7” — on Burnside Ave. in downtown Portland, Oregon.

He is a founding member and designer of Nowhere gallery — a travel trailer converted into a contemporary art space. Nowhere gallery provides local artists with a nontraditional venue for experimentation. The gallery acts as a mobile public art space and has been featured in the ‘Willamette Week’ and the ‘Oregonian.’ Since its creation in 2005, Nowhere has exhibited the work of more than 20 Portland artists.

Brennan has shown his own work at the Contemporary Craft Museum and Gallery, the Walters Cultural Arts Center, and the Hoffman Gallery. His sculptural chair “Ro(_)oM” won first prize at Show2005 in Portland.

Brennan graduated with honors from the Oregon College of Art & Craft in 2005. The rigorous course of study at OCAC trained him to transform any material — from melting ice to hardened steel — into the objects he wants to create. He frequently works with wood, stone, concrete and metal.

Brennan lived in Tokyo for 8 years, before moving to Portland. He returns for visits to Japan as often as possible.