Brandon Harris

Brandon Harris (b.1989) is a Bay Area artist who joined NIAD Art Center in 2024. Working mainly in painting and sculpture, he creates abstract spaces and reimagines pop culture icons in boldly colored, expressive portraits. Among the subjects are famed musicians and athletes, as Harris elaborates, “I’ve got big canvases going, and I’ve done a whole bunch of musicians: Prince, Nelly, T-Pain, Lauryn Hill. I painted Rocky and Mike Tyson too.”

Harris’s work has been featured in group exhibitions including Reflections at Sonoma State University, Dreams Not Remembered at Berkeley City College, Temporary Space at 120710 Gallery, Art of the African Diaspora at Richmond Art Center, and Now Presenting in the Main Gallery at NIAD. His painting of Sylvester Stallone as “Rocky” was chosen to represent NIAD in Art Passages 2024 at the Contra Costa County Admin Building.

All my life I’ve worked on abstract paintings. The colors just come to me, to my head. Warhol, he taught me how to do that, how to work in abstract. I saw his black and white work in movies and in books.

Abstract, 2024 is like a landscape. The red is a fire. The green is like trees. The painting is from my life. I’ve seen lots of fires, and I’ve painted murals and built houses. I built the houses so they won’t burn down.

Now I make paintings and build ceramics. I’ve got big canvases going, and I’ve done a whole bunch of musicians: Prince, Nelly, T-Pain, Lauryn Hill. I painted Rocky and Mike Tyson too. 

I got into ceramics and did a whole bunch of clay work: I got a skull, fruit bowl, eagle, and a tall cup.

Everybody loves my art. Go to NIAD and look me up.