Brian Castellani

Brian Castellani is an American-born, UK-based Artist and Professor of Sociology at Durham University whose work explores social and environmental complexity through painting, drawing, wire sculpture, assemblage, installation, and speculative visual practice.

 

Working across the visual arts, humanities, and sciences, he is part of a wider field of artists and architects exploring visual complexity, entanglement, psychological interiority, ecological crisis, and the complexities of place.

 

For decades, Castellani has developed a large body of work spanning psychologically charged paintings and portraits, assemblage, cartoon-based works, abstract drawing, and experimental visual systems. While the materials and forms have evolved over time, the work has consistently focused on visual complexity, psychological interiority, and the pressures shaping human, social, and environmental systems. In 2009, he founded the Art & Science Factory, LLC as a platform bringing together artistic and scientific methods to explore the complexity of contemporary global life.

 

His current work increasingly focuses on entanglement through dense wire ‘tangles’, suspended sculptural systems, speculative moving-image works, and environmental installations. These works examine how systems accumulate, fracture, adapt, and reorganise through tension, entanglement, fragility, and repair.

 

In 2026, Maggie Castellani joined the Art & Science Factory as Artistic Director, contributing to the ongoing development, presentation, and expansion of the studio’s work.