Published June 9, 2025

Professor Brown's work in exhibition at Half Gallery, NYC

Assistant Professor Becky Brown presents a new painting, "Wruffff", in a group exhibition, "French Fry's Fifth", at the Annex of Half Gallery in NYC! 

Exhibition Title: "French Fry’s Fifth"

On View: June 11 - July 9, 2025

Curated by: RJ Supa (Instagram: @the_interlopere) 

Location: Half Gallery Annex (Instagram: @halfgallery), 233 E 4th St., New York, NY 10009

Opening Reception: Wed. 6/11/25, 6-8PM 

Zoom image: Becky Brown, "Wruffff", 2025, acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20 inches A light green background with ombre of words painted overtop, starting with red letters at the top, purple in the middle, and blue at the bottom, spelling out ChatGPT input and output about dog sounds: "Whuff! RRRUFF! More Thorat Breath HHUFFF... HRRRNNN GGH Quick standard Bark GRRHHRR! WRUFFFF Relaxed Continuous hum HHUFFF-HHUF GRUHR RHA Stretched lazy growl".

Becky Brown, "Wruffff", 2025, acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20 inches

Zoom image: A black and white photo of a chiuahaha sitting on a leather armchair, with text below reading: Alex Nelson French Fry I (After Hujar), 2025, Archival pigment print, 20” x 30” French Fry’s Fifth Curated by RJ Supa Opening: June 11, 6-8 PM June 11 - July 9, 2025 “What becomes a legend most?” Advertising campaign, Blackglama furs, 1968 “The dog is named French Fry.” "Talk of the Town”, The New Yorker, May 29, 2023 A black and white photo of a chiuahaha sitting on a leather armchair, with text below reading: Alex Nelson French Fry I (After Hujar), 2025, Archival pigment print, 20” x 30” French Fry’s Fifth Curated by RJ Supa Opening: June 11, 6-8 PM June 11 - July 9, 2025 “What becomes a legend most?” Advertising campaign, Blackglama furs, 1968 “The dog is named French Fry.” "Talk of the Town”, The New Yorker, May 29, 2023.
Zoom image: Black text on a white background that reads: Half Gallery is pleased to present French Fry’s Fifth, a group exhibition celebrating the first five years of the exceptional life of a single dog, curated by RJ Supa. Born into relative obscurity in the hill towns of the Berkshire mountains of Western Massachusetts, French Fry (né French Fry Chicken Nugget) continues to capture the hearts and imaginations of many throughout the contemporary art world. Following in the grand tradition of other art world canines (Pickle, Bertie the Pom, Matthew Higgs’ Olive) French Fry is a welcome respite to an oftentimes uncertain and chaotic business. Whether at an art fair or an opening, French Fry commands the attention of, and brings joy to artists, patrons, and dealers alike, and now, he will be forever immortalized by a group of contemporary artists, friends and admirers in painting, photography, sculpture and mixed media. Please join us in celebrating the life and legacy of French Fry Chicken Nugget. Artist names are listed at the URL: https://halfgallery.com/annex Black text on a white background that reads: Half Gallery is pleased to present French Fry’s Fifth, a group exhibition celebrating the first five years of the exceptional life of a single dog, curated by RJ Supa. Born into relative obscurity in the hill towns of the Berkshire mountains of Western Massachusetts, French Fry (né French Fry Chicken Nugget) continues to capture the hearts and imaginations of many throughout the contemporary art world. Following in the grand tradition of other art world canines (Pickle, Bertie the Pom, Matthew Higgs’ Olive) French Fry is a welcome respite to an oftentimes uncertain and chaotic business. Whether at an art fair or an opening, French Fry commands the attention of, and brings joy to artists, patrons, and dealers alike, and now, he will be forever immortalized by a group of contemporary artists, friends and admirers in painting, photography, sculpture and mixed media. Please join us in celebrating the life and legacy of French Fry Chicken Nugget. Artist names are listed at the URL: https://halfgallery.com/annex.

Becky Brown's statement on the work "Wrufff"

Wruffff challenges technology’s promise to perform the impossible by exploring shared language between people and pets. To translate dog sounds with artificial intelligence, recordings were submitted to ChatGPT. Two kinds of responses were collected: transcriptions into the English alphabet (“wrufff”) and descriptions of the sounds (“quick standard bark”). This experiment explores the power of language beyond direct signification, as well as the limits of communication and the potential of nonsense to generate new meaning. 

Such ideas are in dialogue with the work of Dadaists, like Kurt Schwitters, whose sound poem “Ursonate” (1922 – 32) has since been performed all over the world with its written score. Interpreters hail from Finland, Japan, France and other countries, with a wide range of native languages.

Wruffff’s square lettering is meant to appear robotic and “machine-made,” while irregularities reassert the human hand. The dense, all-over grid of text refers to endless scrolling, and the quantity—over quality—of information that A.I. and the internet provide.