Bree Gilliam

 Bree Gilliam is a painter and entrepreneur from Buffalo, NY. Her work primarily focuses on social issues and experiences that people face daily. She uses bold color and expressive brushwork to provoke emotion from her audience. Gilliam primarily paints portraits of celebrities, friends, and family. Her goal is to always relate, inform, and spark conversation. She believes that conversations are the first step to making solutions to the problems in this world. 

 Gilliam is a native of Williamsville, NY. She is the owner and founder of Paintphoria, Buffalo’s first open studio splatter room. She is a graduate of SUNY Buffalo State College (2022) She graduated with a BFA degree in painting and a minor in art therapy. She is a member of the Dean’s Honors Program. She was also selected to be a Dean’s Student Council Representative (2020-2021) during the pandemic where she expressed the concerns of students in the Art and Design Department at Buffalo State. In 2021, she received an Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship where she painted eight portrait paintings of influential individuals in the African American Community. She presented her project at the SUNY Undergraduate Research Conference in 2022. During her first year, she was selected to do an interactive mural in Upton Hall entitled Seeds of Creativity. Gilliam has received over ten awards and scholarships during her time at Buffalo State. Some of these include the Dean's Award for Excellence in the School of the Arts and Sciences, Dean’s Creative Associates Award, Robert C. and Marilyn Wilson Painting Scholarship, Barbara L. Czurles-Nelson and Donald J. Nelson Scholarship in Fine Arts, James and Doris Aikman Fine Arts Scholarship, Dr. Harry and Lorraine Ausprich Endowed Scholarship, and Hyatt’s Award for Excellence. Her work has been featured in Buffalo State’s annual “Art and Design Department Student Exhibition” (2018, 2020, 2021, 2022), WNY Urban Arts Collective, Paint the Town, and Los Artstas del Barrio collaborative show, “Bridging the Gap.” (2018), Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. Show: “A Salute to the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Art Movement” (2019), “Artist Galleria” presented by Buffalo State’s chapter of NAACP and Black Active Minds (2020), and Anne Frank Project’s, “Black Stories Matter” (2022).