Gary Brewer is an artist, curator, writer, and collaborator who resides in Pasadena and maintains a studio in the historic Bendix Building in downtown Los Angeles. A self-taught artist, Brewer's current practice focuses on creating luminous and richly detailed oil paintings, which are informed by his deep passion for nature, learning, and art history.

Raised in California, first in the Mojave Desert and then along the Orange County coast, Brewer's fascination with the natural world began at an early age, prompting him to start drawing. He possessed a natural gift for rendering and, in high school, was rarely without a sketchpad and pens, often drawing friends and his neighborhood. In his late teens, he began a period of self-education, delving deeply into books on artists, art history, literature, and philosophy from his local library, all while refining his art practice.

At the age of 21, following an unfulfilling period working in commercial illustration, Brewer made a vow to dedicate his life to pursuing his own art. He was determined to be a seeker, engaged in the pursuit of the sublime, a journey that painting allowed him to endlessly explore.

Since the late 1980s, Brewer's work has been featured in nearly a hundred group and solo exhibitions. His unconventional path to becoming an artist has given him a depth of empathy for others, and he considers becoming a mentor and professor a proud accomplishment. Since 2017, he has taught Intermediate Painting and Art History courses to a diverse group of students at La Sierra University in Riverside. This role led him to organize an exhibition in January 2020 at the University's Brandstater Gallery, featuring the works of four artists: Alison Saar, Iva Gueorguieva, Fatemeh Burnes, and Mei Xian Qiu. The decision to group these artists was inspired, in part, by the diversity of the student body, as he aimed to design an exhibition that communicated the importance of cultural variety to the national character.

Curation has been an essential part of Brewer's practice since 1999, when he organized "THEM: Artists, Scientists and Designers Concerned with the Entomological Universe," at SoMARTS, San Francisco. This led to another significant exhibition, "The Age of Wonder: Artist's Engaged with the Natural World," at the Turtle Bay Museum in Redding.

Since 2017, writing has become an equally important aspect of his practice. He has written extensively about artists, often in the form of in-depth interviews and essays on their studio practices, with over 80 pieces published to date.

As an artist, curator, writer, and educator, Brewer is driven by a commitment to inclusiveness, collaboration, and fostering a sense of wonder and gratitude. Increasingly, his studio practice is motivated by a passion for the preservation of the natural world and the role artists can play in shaping its future. He is guided by the ethos of E.O. Wilson, who articulated in Future of Life that good intentions and regulations are insufficient to protect the environment; rather, artists, writers, and thinkers must create new myths and stories to awaken a love for all living things. This philosophy drives his work toward positive change.

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