APARTMENTS: small prints

A move to Shanghai inspired a shift in subjects for my prints from common scenes in the forest to common scenes in the city. My Apartments series captures views of the ubiquitous six story walk up apartments that most of the middle class has occupied for the last few decades. In a city rapidly filling up with a forest of modern skyscrapers, these historic low-rise apartments provide rich texture around daily life absent from modern apartments.

These micro landscapes blend the diverse architecture of Shanghai’s recent past with the functionality of modern life. Shanghai is famous for the poles, filled with hung laundry, that jut out from apartment windows. In festival seasons, it is common to see fish and meat drying next to clothes.

People transform their individual units to serve their personal needs and expand their spaces. This is especially true for the older buildings, thus making once generic facades alive with the texture of diverse window designs, porch configurations, a/c unit add-ons, laundry drying apparatus, window security gates and urban gardens. The hanging laundry, a stand in for the people living inside.

Together, these additions create complex layers of visual textures that elevate the blandness of the architecture and reveals the vibrancy of the occupants.

Here is a 10 minute timelapse video of me carving and then printing the block for Apartment 45:

Apartment 46, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 46
linoleum block print
15" x 11" (30.5cm x 23cm)
edition of 75
©2024 All rights reserved.

Apartment 45, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 45
linoleum block print
15" x 11" (30.5cm x 23cm)
edition of 75
©2024 All rights reserved.

Apartment 44, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 44
linoleum block print
15" x 11" (30.5cm x 23cm)
edition of 75
©2024 All rights reserved.

Apartment 43, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 43
linoleum block print
15" x 11" (30.5cm x 23cm)
edition of 75
©2024 All rights reserved.

Apartment 42, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 42
linoleum block print
15" x 11" (30.5cm x 23cm)
edition of 75
©2024 All rights reserved.

Apartment 41, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 41
linoleum block print
15" x 11" (30.5cm x 23cm)
edition of 75
©2024 All rights reserved.

Apartment 40, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 40
linoleum block print
15" x 11" (30.5cm x 23cm)
edition of 75
©2024 All rights reserved.

Apartment 39, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 39
linoleum block print
15" x 11" (30.5cm x 23cm)
edition of 75
©2022 All rights reserved.

Apartment 38, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 38
linoleum block print
15" x 11" (30.5cm x 23cm)
edition of 25
©2022 All rights reserved.

Apartment 37, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 37
linoleum block print
15" x 11" (30.5cm x 23cm)
edition of 75
©2022 All rights reserved.

Apartment 36, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 36
linoleum block print
15" x 11" (30.5cm x 23cm)
edition of 75
©2022 All rights reserved.

Apartment 35, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 34, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 33, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 32, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 31, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 30, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 29, a black and white linoleum block
print of an apartment building in Shanghai by artist Nicholas Brown.

Apartment 29
linoleum block print
15" x 11" (30.5cm x 23cm)
edition of 75