Bryten Goss was a talented young painter up until his tragic death in 2006 at just 30 years old.

His mother started the non-profit Bryten Goss Foundation for the Arts in order to not only preserve the legacy that her son created, but also as a way to help establish art related programs, exhibitions and scholarships to deserving young artists who excel in the fine arts and use similar mediums to Bryten Goss.

One could argue thats success is dependent as much on who you know as how well you do something. Bryten Goss had both sides of this coin covered. Amongst his patrons and friends are Danny Masterson , Giovanni Ribisi , Jason Lee, Stark Sands, Laura Prepon, Juliette Lewis, DJ A.M., and Christopher Masterson, some of whom were “hosting” the event.
I got to the memorial event at 6pm, had a couple of cocktails courtesy of the delicious Veem açai liquor and organic 4 Copas Tequila, but left before the planned ceremonies had started. However, I did get a good long look at the paintings that were on display, and I was impressed by the maturity and cynicism in Goss’s work.

He was an accomplished figurist, with a series of female nudes, one of which depicted a beautiful woman with prosthetic legs, with 3 inch high heels, lounging in a chair. In particular this painting set the stage for me in viewing the rest of the work because of it’s strong sense of irony.

Following is a series of American urban landscapes burning like a disaster scene from the Bible. Silhouettes stand at windows in Tribeca, and a neon light reads “Jesus Saves” above downtown Los Angeles. This was expanded on in the series “Triumph of Death”, Goss adding skeletons rampaging through Los Angeles and New York, bullying citizens of all kinds, adding a humorous quality to an apocalyptic event.

More burning buildings were expertly rendered, though in a rural setting; one image showed a farm house engulfed in flames, with neighbors sitting in lawn chairs, warming themselves in the night.

Goss seemed to develop a fascination with absurdity which he expressed in the work “Little Pope”, and “Blind Leading the Blind”, in which a train of blind midget-like figures from the Catholic religion; pope, cardinal, monk, etc; attempt to make their way over rough terrain with eyes closed.

The most notable of Goss’s’ work, in my opinion, were the series of paintings he did depicting women and pigs. Not just for the level of mastery medium-wise, but also the depth of visual commentary. “Alex on Pig” shows a woman in lingerie riding the back of a large hog, hands curled into it’s hair, glancing behind her with a concerned look. My favorite painting, “Alex Throwing Roses to Pigs”, shows a woman with a bouquet of long stem red roses, dropping them before the animals and looking very serious about it. The whole metaphor of “pearls before swine” came to mind, and these really seemed allegoric to being a performer (the model is an actress) in Hollywood, or any kind of artist, attempting to maneuver the “lowest common denominator” domination of creative industries.

It is a shame for someone with such talent and keen instinct for visual communication to leave this world so early. It would have been interesting to gauge the contribution of Bryten Goss’s full adult career.

For more information on Bryten Goss’s work, check out his website.

Images courtesy of Bryten Goss Foundation for the Arts

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