The Center for Contemporary Arts partners with local businesses to provide local art for their offices to showcase the regional artistic talent in public spaces.
The Center staff believes that art made by local artists should be seen outside gallery walls. There is immense talent, skill, and resources in this area. Abilene has a thriving arts scene and the Center serves as a resource for both the artist and the client; connecting one to the other. With over 90 artist members, the Center is a vast community of artists with styles and subjects to match any home, office, or atmosphere. Around Abilene, you can find art by CCA artists at Hendrick Medical Center, the Law Office of Katie McCracken Gore, the Law Firm of Chaile Allen, PLLC, and MMB Law Firm, PLLC, at Peacock Patio Bar (coming soon), and at Condley and Company, LLP’s new home. 
Condley and Company, LLP is completing a massive renovation of the Grant Building located at North 3rd and Pine Street. They have chosen to fill their new spaces with all local art almost entirely from Center for Contemporary Arts artist members. Many works were selected from exhibitions and inventory and some new site-specific works were commissioned specifically for their locations. One artist was selected to produce major new works.
CCA Artist Member Anthony Brown was selected to create two new major pieces as well as two additional works from recent exhibitions at the Center to adorn the new Condley walls. The site-specific works Brown has created for Condley are large in scale, with the first measuring 3 feet by 8 feet and the second measuring 5 feet by 8 feet. Abstract Cityscape (3 x 8’) is a mixed media collage of downtown buildings, and The Old Grant Building (5 x 8’) is a mixed media piece depicting the original Grant building as it looked in the mid-20th century and features a vast, blue West Texas sky. 
The youngest of six children, Brown dreamed of becoming an artist from childhood and studied art at Syracuse University and at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. He moved to Abilene in 1980 and says he fell in love with the West: the vast skies, empty spaces, billowing clouds, and dramatic light. “I love the west and I love Abilene. I want to express my excitement and love for them with skills and panache.”
Brown is inspired by color, light, and shadows, Impressionistic style, and abstract compositions. His art-making process involves taking reference photos, compiling collages out of those images, and painting the results. Now a full-time artist, Brown says he is constantly creating new work and has lots of paintings to sell and welcomes commission pieces. He says, “My paintings make people happy, and they often buy more than one.”
If you are interested in adding original, one-of-a-kind, local art to your business or professional space, contact the Center at center@center-arts.com.
Contributed by the Center for Contemporary Arts
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