Brent Estabrook: Storytime

'Storytime’, Brent Estabrook’s debut solo show with Maddox Gallery in Gstaad, invites us into the boundless realm of his imagination, a place where creativity knows no limits and reality is merely a starting point.

Marking a significant evolution in Estabrook’s artistic journey, the works on show transcend the confines of realism to explore a world shaped solely by his inventive vision.

Gone are the days when the artist’s subjects were tethered to the tangible, with stuffed animals meticulously crafted from real-life references. In ‘Storytime’ each character is freed from the constraints of the physical world and placed in environments that transport the viewer to fantastical worlds of diverse settings and scale. From hilltops to cosy homes, these surreal toys are painted on backgrounds as exciting and vibrant as their personalities. “My cRaZy stuFFed aniMALs series is entering a whole new era where I am dedicating myself to sketching the characters onto the canvas directly from my imagination,” says Estabrook. “I like challenging my viewers and collectors to see things from a different perspective—to find the joy and wonder in both nostalgia and something new entirely.”

Picnic in the Park depicts a bunny peering out of a basket, his off-kilter face transforming this idyllic scene into something altogether more bizarre. In Spiffy, a portrait of the world’s most iconic cartoon mouse, Mickey’s features have been switched around, creating a brand-new character that hovers between the recognisable and the surreal. Disney’s original Alice in Wonderland movie inspired Rabbit Hole, which transforms the artist’s signature quilt motif into a mind-bending, visually engaging vortex of colours.

Step into Estabrook’s whimsical universe this summer at Maddox Gstaad and be transported back to when we were small children ourselves—and propelled into a land where the line between the real and the make-believe blurs.

"A world of pure imagination, Brent Estabrook’s paintings use colour as the superpower that goes straight to your heart" - Maeve Doyle, Artistic Director

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