Andrea Marie Breiling is an American contemporary artist acclaimed for her large-scale, multi-layered abstract paintings created with spray paint, which have been exhibited at leading galleries internationally including Almine Rech and Night Gallery. Her energetic, atmospheric works are celebrated for their luminous colour, physicality, and sense of movement—qualities that have positioned Breiling as a significant voice in contemporary abstraction. As she notes in Ocula Magazine, 'Essentially I would be doomed without music,' highlighting the deep influence of sound and rhythm on her painting process.
Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Andrea Marie Breiling was raised in a creative family and encouraged to explore art from a young age. She earned her BFA in Studio Art and Gender Studies from the University of California, Irvine in 2008, and her MFA in Studio Art from Claremont Graduate University in 2014. After formative years spent in California, Mexico City, and Los Angeles, Breiling relocated to the New York metropolitan area, where she continues to live and work.
Andrea Marie Breiling's practice is defined by her use of spray paint to create vibrant, immersive abstract paintings that evoke both spontaneity and control. Her technique involves building up multiple cross-hatched layers of colour, resulting in works that are at once ethereal and intensely physical. Breiling's paintings frequently reference nature, music, and personal experience, and are known for their dynamic compositions and bold palettes.
Breiling began her career painting with brushes in a bold, colourful abstract style, but soon sought to move beyond traditional methods. Dissatisfied with comparisons to historical abstraction, she experimented with staining and eventually adopted spray paint as her primary medium, manipulating various spray tips to create lines that mimic brushstrokes.
In BIG MOOD (2020), her solo exhibition at Night Gallery, Los Angeles, Breiling presented works such as Give Me All Your Drugs and Let it Go, which feature neon cross-hatching and overlapping lines that generate a sense of volatile colour and movement. This period marked a shift towards more optical, less material paintings, with compositions that balance chaos and structure.
By 2021, Breiling's palette had become softer and more naturalistic, as seen in works like Lucy in the Sky and Under the Bridge (2021). Her solo exhibition Sweet Dreams of Rhythm and Dancing (2021) at Almine Rech, London, showcased feathery marks and a transcendental haze, reflecting her studio's woodland surroundings and a growing interest in the atmospheric.
Breiling's first solo exhibition in China, Fence, Fall, Touch (2022) at Almine Rech, Beijing, unified her canvases with a base layer of yellow—a colour symbolising optimism and joy. Music, particularly the song Empty Floor by Jan Blomqvist, was a key influence on this series, guiding both the mood and titles of the paintings.
Breiling's work is held in the collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix; Deji Art Museum, Nanjing; Dangxia Art Foundation, Beijing; and X Museum, Beijing.
Andrea Marie Breiling has been the subject of both solo exhibitions and group exhibitions at important galleries and institutions. Below is a selection of important exhibitions.
Andrea Marie Breiling's website can be found here, and Andrea Marie Breiling's Instagram can be found here.
Andrea Marie Breiling's practice has been featured in leading magazines including Artforum, Cultured, Whitehot Magazine, and LA Weekly. In Ocula Magazine, Breiling discusses the role of music in her studio, stating: 'Essentially I would be doomed without music'.
Andrea Marie Breiling's artworks are held in the public collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix; Deji Art Museum, Nanjing; Dangxia Art Foundation, Beijing; and X Museum, Beijing. Her paintings are regularly exhibited at Almine Rech (Paris, London, Brussels, Beijing, New York) and Night Gallery, Los Angeles.
Breiling uses spray paint to build up multiple layers of colour, often manipulating different spray tips to mimic brushstrokes. She draws inspiration from music, nature, and personal experience, allowing these influences to guide her process and the mood of each artwork.
Andrea Marie Breiling is represented by Night Gallery in Los Angeles and Almine Rech, with locations in Paris, London, Brussels, Beijing, and New York.
Andrea Marie Breiling was raised in a family of artists and began drawing at a young age, inspired by her grandmother's creative exercises. She often listens to music while painting, which she credits as essential to her creative process
Andrea Marie Breiling is pronounced: an-DRAY-uh muh-REE BRY-ling.
Ocula | 2025
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