There is a fluidity to his art that gives a sense that nothing is ever completely complete. “They’re for sale, but this is process-oriented work,” Brown says, “so I keep the props and sometimes I develop them further.”
In some cases, it took multiple attempts to best capture the image he wanted to present. Such is the case with “Cheetos Trump.” Brown didn’t like his first try
Satirize the president. “I showed it to my friends,” he said. “Everyone thinks it can be stronger. I also have friends who show me my stuff when I’m not sure.”
On other occasions, Brown would improvise. This happens most often when he uses magazine pages to create collage masks and there is a performative element to them. “You’re not progressing on the canvas in front of you,” he said. “You are the art, and I have to look at the camera and the mirror through the art.”
Still, part of the process is like art on canvas. “It’s like a painting,” he says, “you keep making it.” For Brown, the end result is a complete blurring of the lines between himself and the art, saying, “You can’t tell what’s real and what’s fake.”
In Brown’s studio, the past is connected to the present and perhaps even the future. “I like the Life and Work Museum because I have my own creative side,” he said. “Not just in the present, I look for clues, clues and patterns from the past to understand the deeper meaning of my work. Different pieces have different relationships, which is great to see.”
We project ourselves onto celebrities. Most celebrities are the most boring people, but it’s the audience, those amazing regular people, all of us losers, that make them interesting to watch. “
Brown moved to Brooklyn in 1991 and, except for brief stops in Europe, has lived there ever since. He began his artistic career while settling in his adopted hometown. “I don’t know anyone,” he said. “So, I moved here, got a job, met some people, and made my own way, but I wasn’t coming from a gallery.” Instead, he found an artistic home in underground warehouse spaces that spawned the work of performance artists. Brown made the installation, which then gave way to performance.
Although Brown trained as a painter, he admits that figurative painting is not his strong suit. Through performance art, he was able to remedy this. He said he was able to use his body as a figure in a way that was not possible with painting or drawing. Brown’s work often finds him photographing in unusual situations. He spent time dressing up as various characters and going to malls to take photos. Around the turn of the century, he stalked Donald Trump for photos, attended parties dressed as high-society Alex Von Furstenberg (son of fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg), and met with celebrities like Diddy and the Clintons. The latter project is the subject of his first solo exhibition.
“I’m interested not in celebrities but in believers, fanatics and obscure nobodies,” Brown said. In fact, that’s part of the story behind his current identity. Brown worked for ten years with a performing arts group called the Fantastic Nobodies. He retained Nobody as his artistic surname as a nod to this and likened it to members of the Ramones.
But, back to the “wonderful unknowns” that permeate Brown’s work. He describes them as “people who pretend until they make it.”
Brown added, “In a way, it’s very American. This is a guy who doesn’t party and is a loser.”
That ties into what he’s doing today, as Brown is still dealing with the mask. “The old work was a social mask in which I created a masked character. My character was an illusion in which I inserted myself into some social structure,” he said. “The new work is a digital mask. When there’s a picture of you, especially on the internet, that’s not you. It’s your mask or a representation of you. It’s an illusion. We attribute it to ourselves, so, in a way, the technology changes the context, but the idea is similar.”
In early 2016, Brown was working a full-time job installing art. After get off work, he would go into his studio, crumple up magazine pages, and stick them to his face. He said the photos he shared on Instagram improved during that time. The art was interesting and he began to adjust the light and quality of photography. Brown’s David Henry Nobody Jr. persona gradually gained a following. Later, some of his video clips appeared in the Explore feature and became popular, and Instagram itself gave him a boost. But that visibility also has its problems, attracting trolls that Brown subsequently blocks. “I’m very protective of my account,” he said, adding that in a few weeks he would experience blocking large numbers of users for days on end.
