Brega’s paintings are classical in form; a bowl containing apples and a wooden bucket filled with eggs both hearken back to simple, frontal, balanced compositions that have been used by still life artists throughout history. However, his trompe l’oeil compositions, which combine reproductions of iconic images with letters and personal memorabilia, are more complex in meaning and locate Brega within a post modern world. In Founding Father, for example, we contemplate tradition compositional elements—the drawn curtains and the letters—combined with an image of John Adams, an icon of American history. The image, which Brega tore from a museum catalogue, is also a reference to an icon of American art, Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of John Adams. Stuart’s portrait of John Adams represented in Founding Father is but a reproduction of that portrait. That is, it is a painting of a reproduction. It is a painting of a reproduction of a painting by a famous American of a famous American. Brega’s postmodern audience is thus challenged to contemplate the nature of art within context and layers of fine art and popular culture.
