September 17, 2026
Brad Eberhard
Building an Audience
Timothy Hawkinson Gallery
August 22 - September 26, 2026
Brad Eberhard
Building an Audience is the title of Brad Eberhard's enchanting exhibition at Timothy Hawkinson Gallery. Eberhard is not only an artist known for his painting and ceramic works, but he is also the director and founder of the Altadena based contemporary art gallery Alto Beta. Rebounding from the loss of his studio in the Eaton fire, Eberhard presents a new body of work— modest-sized paintings and small-scale ceramic heads that are haunting and charming simultaneously.
Artists can be solitary beings, working alone making artworks that eventually fill walls and shelves within the studio. As objects, they often come to life in the gallery and for Eberhard that is exactly the point. The audience completes the works and it is this connection — the relationship between artwork and viewer that interests him. In some ways Eberhard has created his own audience as one can imagine his representational ceramic sculptures eyeing his more abstracted paintings. While some of the ceramics are interspersed with paintings and along the walls, others are presented on pedestals that sit in the center of the gallery. Many of the works are surrounded by or placed upon fragments of colorful rulers that emphasize their hand-made qualities.
A few of the paintings have figurative elements. In Waiting in the Wings (2025), an abstracted elf-like figure with a red-face is a composite of geometric shapes surrounded by deep black. It peeks out from between an opening in patterned curtains trimmed in gold. Final Home (2025) is a more somber painting. Here, a mummified head wrapped in tape with green eyes is depicted resting at the bottom of the composition. The head appears in a rectangle cut out from wooden rulers painted different shades of white that cover the rest of the image. Three triangular shapes, one green, one red, and one back also appear as accents.
In paintings including Chute!, Trunk of Funk and Eviscerating Pyramid (all 2026), Eberhard delights in abstraction. Interconnecting shapes in a range of colors are carefully composed to suggest receding spaces. The eye traverses the nuances of these works eliciting pleasure. A similar feeling arises when regarding Eberhard's ceramic heads. Although bodiless, they assert a presence. Glazed in myriad colors and molded into unique shapes, they become a curious cast of characters. Evoking robots, monsters and even grandparents, these figures are quasi-self portraits reflecting various emotions and stages of life.
Eberhard's heads can fit in the palm of one's hand. Although some have intricate bases, others are amount to a face with a short neck as a support. Water Elf (all 2026) is a sea-green oval with circular ears, two deep holes for eyes, a small triangular shaped nose, and a short horizontal line as a mouth. Wez II references the antagonist in the film Mad Max 2. Eberhard's interpretation is glazed bright orange with a drippy whitish-blue mask and a red-yellow mohawk. Its open mouth is a rectangular chasm. Sunscreen is a head with a large nose and a huge smile. Its red-tan-orange hued face resembles someone who has gotten too much sun exposure.
Eberhard's menagerie is curious and enigmatic. The works demand attention and evoke sympathy. They are at once funny, witty and poignant reflections of this particular moment in time as experienced by a thoughtful painter who has turned his brought out his emotions in the form of lovable ceramic busts. When juxtaposed with the paintings, they resonate on multiple levels.
Building an Audience
Timothy Hawkinson Gallery
August 22 - September 26, 2026
Brad Eberhard
Building an Audience is the title of Brad Eberhard's enchanting exhibition at Timothy Hawkinson Gallery. Eberhard is not only an artist known for his painting and ceramic works, but he is also the director and founder of the Altadena based contemporary art gallery Alto Beta. Rebounding from the loss of his studio in the Eaton fire, Eberhard presents a new body of work— modest-sized paintings and small-scale ceramic heads that are haunting and charming simultaneously.
Artists can be solitary beings, working alone making artworks that eventually fill walls and shelves within the studio. As objects, they often come to life in the gallery and for Eberhard that is exactly the point. The audience completes the works and it is this connection — the relationship between artwork and viewer that interests him. In some ways Eberhard has created his own audience as one can imagine his representational ceramic sculptures eyeing his more abstracted paintings. While some of the ceramics are interspersed with paintings and along the walls, others are presented on pedestals that sit in the center of the gallery. Many of the works are surrounded by or placed upon fragments of colorful rulers that emphasize their hand-made qualities.
A few of the paintings have figurative elements. In Waiting in the Wings (2025), an abstracted elf-like figure with a red-face is a composite of geometric shapes surrounded by deep black. It peeks out from between an opening in patterned curtains trimmed in gold. Final Home (2025) is a more somber painting. Here, a mummified head wrapped in tape with green eyes is depicted resting at the bottom of the composition. The head appears in a rectangle cut out from wooden rulers painted different shades of white that cover the rest of the image. Three triangular shapes, one green, one red, and one back also appear as accents.
In paintings including Chute!, Trunk of Funk and Eviscerating Pyramid (all 2026), Eberhard delights in abstraction. Interconnecting shapes in a range of colors are carefully composed to suggest receding spaces. The eye traverses the nuances of these works eliciting pleasure. A similar feeling arises when regarding Eberhard's ceramic heads. Although bodiless, they assert a presence. Glazed in myriad colors and molded into unique shapes, they become a curious cast of characters. Evoking robots, monsters and even grandparents, these figures are quasi-self portraits reflecting various emotions and stages of life.
Eberhard's heads can fit in the palm of one's hand. Although some have intricate bases, others are amount to a face with a short neck as a support. Water Elf (all 2026) is a sea-green oval with circular ears, two deep holes for eyes, a small triangular shaped nose, and a short horizontal line as a mouth. Wez II references the antagonist in the film Mad Max 2. Eberhard's interpretation is glazed bright orange with a drippy whitish-blue mask and a red-yellow mohawk. Its open mouth is a rectangular chasm. Sunscreen is a head with a large nose and a huge smile. Its red-tan-orange hued face resembles someone who has gotten too much sun exposure.
Eberhard's menagerie is curious and enigmatic. The works demand attention and evoke sympathy. They are at once funny, witty and poignant reflections of this particular moment in time as experienced by a thoughtful painter who has turned his brought out his emotions in the form of lovable ceramic busts. When juxtaposed with the paintings, they resonate on multiple levels.