Brian Higbee is interested in the creation and development of ideological organizations as conceptual contexts for large bodies of work. His projects generally utilize a wide range of materials such as small-scale models, drawings, painting, sculpture, text and computer generated images.

Higbee’s first major, ongoing project began in 2000 with the Associated Artists for Propaganda Research (AAPR) which has its roots in the scope of politics and disinformation. Like the AAPR, the artist’s work explores themes of propaganda, political dominance, corporate control and U.S. military prowess. In 2003 Higbee set forth on another round of continuing projects for The Future Living Project, a concept that revolves around architectural components.

As a defunct architectural firm from the 1970’s, The Future Living Project re-imagines the possibilities of art and architecture in the distant future. The models used for these constructions depict a broad variety of architectural structures, including but not limited to: public sculptures, alternative-energy based family homes, corporate buildings, overpopulated industrial cities and several structures for the movie MEGA-CITY 6. The Lost Estate of Ed “Johnson” Shepard was developed in 2007 to explore a simpler and more naive approach to art, based upon a fictitious individual who makes art about UFO’s, fast cars, war and violence.

In 2006 Higbee built Epicenter City for the AAPR at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center in Buffalo, New York – a city model made entirely of wood and cardboard, measuring 25-feet-by-8-feet across the floor. Painted uniformly with a shade of neutral gray, this model city consists of approximately 800 street blocks made with over 10,000 pieces of wood. The artist’s sculpture renders a fictional city that looks as if it has been destroyed by an atomic bomb.

Brian Higbee was born and raised in the mountains of Pennsylvania. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He holds a B.F.A. from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, located in Pennsylvania and received his M.F.A. in 2000 from CW Post/Long Island University in New York. Higbee has exhibited at PS 122, the Rotunda Gallery, Here Art, ABC No Rio, Governor’s Island and the Islip Art Museum. He is also the recipient of two grants from the Puffin Foundation and is a member of the collective Artcodex.