Brian Oakes is an interdisciplinary sculptor based in Brooklyn. They graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in sculpture and a concentration in computation in 2021. They have shown their art at Mery Gates Gallery, Blade Study, Dunkunsthalle, Someday Gallery, Bellow Grand, Space 369, and Nightjar Studios. [1] [2]
Oakes is known for making chandelier-like light fixtures, which hang from ceilings and also function as art objects, playing back snippets of audio. [3] [4] [5] They are also notable for making sculptures enabled by digital fabrication processes, such as using Printed Circuit Boards and CNC. [6]
Their 2024 solo show at Blade Study in New York City, Seed, focused on dioramas and display cases housing non-functional machines and miniature electronics. [7] [8] Writing about Seed, critic Theo Belci wrote that Oakes "hints at the vast conceptual webs undergirding modern economic networks, emphasizing what might lie beyond (or beneath) the easily apprehended manifestations of our digital caves."