“Like a modern version of Italian artist Modigliani’s figures, Brooks’ portrayals of women are not overly dreamlike or unreal, but aim to serve as a lyrical device to accentuate their narrative.”
— HI-FRUCTOSE MAGAZINE
“His images of elongated female subjects in film noir settings have become signature works in the modern pop surrealist movement.”
— Corey Helford Gallery
“The ‘women of Troy’ present an elaborate pageantry of characters observed in allegorical settings. These women play out intimate scenes through a detailed visual language. They are usually caught in moments where something transformative has or is about to happen. ”
-JUXTAPOZ MAGAZINE
His new work looks like they were painted with cotton swabs and dandelion seed heads… A cast of shimmering characters”
-Globe And Mail
My artistic journey began around the age of two when I tried sketching likenesses of Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich. My mother, a dedicated still-life watercolorist, often painted in the afternoons, always with some old movie playing on TV. As I sat quietly beside her easel with a pencil and paper, I didn’t want to draw fruit and fences. I found myself transported into the shadowy worlds of classic cinema that flickered on screen—a delightful escape from the confines of nap time. The glamorous women in those films ignited my passion, and they became my muses.
As I matured, my fascination deepened. I became enthralled by the works of legendary Hollywood studio photographers like George Hurrell and Clarence Bull, spending countless hours in the library, pouring over colossal books filled with Hollywood stills. My sketches captured a spectrum from the silent film era through to the 1950s, each piece resonating with a cinematic narrative infused with rich atmospheres and dramatic lighting. These solitary hours of self-guided exploration were my only formal training in the visual arts. By the time I began crafting my own scenes and characters, the vintage cinematic aesthetic had become second nature, woven into my hand.
Unbeknownst to me, my lack of formal training formed a unique blend of techniques that set my work apart from more traditional methods. Consequently, I didn’t see anything approaching the style of work that I was creating represented in the gallery world. Years later I discovered a large print by a pop surrealism artist hanging in a downtown Toronto loft - a moment that that changed my understanding of contemporary art. I realized I was part of a movement that, to that point, had remained largely undiscovered in Canada.
In 2009, I took a significant leap into the fine art world with my first formal gallery show. This was followed by my inaugural large-scale solo exhibition, VIRAGO, in 2010. The remarkable reception to that exhibition marked a turning point. My work began to attract attention from audiences in other parts of the world, leading to exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Spain, London, Paris, Berlin and Australia.
“Brooks has garnered an international reputation for his disproportioned “girls,” a continuing body of work that revolves around female characters who assert their strength, glamour, danger, or apathy toward the viewer through a detailed visual language, Ultimately revealing complicated relationships to power.”
— COREY HELFORD GALLERY, L.A.
“Brooks looks at the contradictions of artificiality through portraits of androgynous women captured at the height of their own private dramas. Presenting them spot-lit, Troy makes them appear almost like film stars, enhancing the suggestion of potent hidden narratives. In this way his women seem somehow prisoners of their own exuberance, beholden to their decadent impulses whilst also lucid enough to perceive their own folly.”
— JAMES FREEMAN GALLERY, London, UK