Brotmeyer’s art is one of transformation and reanimation. Through meticulous handwork and craftsmanship, he creates spontaneous and whimsical portraits from anonymous turn of the century ancestors. Typically thought to be forever frozen in time, Brotmeyer’s sitters are now liberated from their bland studio environs and reanimated into new characters that make us laugh, reflect, and cogitate. Though physically small in scale, the collages bring up larger issues of survival, ancestral lineage, evolution, and self-identity.

Brotmeyer is represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Houston Museum of Art, and the Queensland Museum, Australia. Brotmeyer was born in New Orleans in 1946, and presently resides in New York City.