Brabant, Gene
Gene Brabant was born 1946 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He won numerous art contests throughout his schooling in Brentwood, Victoria and Nanaimo. He left school after grade eight because he knew that he was going to be an artist.
His family settled in the community of James Bay in Victoria. Mungo Martin, the master Kwakwaka’wakw artist moved his family from Fort Rupert to the same block as the Brabant family. Mungo Martin’s son-in law, Henry Hunt also moved his family to Victoria and he joined the Thunderbird project in 1954. He later became the master carver in 1962. Gene’s father, a professional musician was a close friend of the Hunt family. The neighbourhood would often be woken in the early morning to Indian songs mixed with Hank Williams.
The Hunt family studio grew into the Art of the Raven Gallery under the direction of Tony Hunt Senior. Tony offered Gene his first apprenticeship when he was fifteen-year-old and Gene finally accepted the offer when he was twenty-three. In the meantime, he worked as a sign painter which would later affect his interest in the clean flowing lines of artists such as Willie Seaweed. He began carving with John Livingston who was also the gallery manager at the time. He carved in the Hunt family studio off and on between 1971 and 1980. Gene has been trained in the Kwakwaka’wakw style, but he often works in classical Nuxalk or Bella Coola style. His work is often interpretations of historic master works. He has traveled extensively to visit museums and study older pieces. Often, he will measure works with callipers to understand features of a masks. His paint style is influenced by Willie Seaweed, the great master artist, and his own training as a sign painter. The balance between detailed carving and precision painting makes a Gene Brabant piece both powerful from a distance and exact under close inspection.