Brian Alfred was born in Pittsburgh in 1974. He started his career as a painter, going on to exhibit animations based on his paintings. His works, in large, focus on how our surroundings and culture are mediated by technology. After 9/11, and the advancement of surveillance and conspiracy theories, he began to almost exclusively focus on images of architecture, machinery, and urban landscapes. The world he creates lack human life, therefore giving his work a distant, remote feel. Alfred typically works from found images of urban landscapes. Alfred uses a computer to reduce and abstract his images before rendering the resulting color fields in acrylic or animation.​ His work resonates with American artists such as Hopper and Sheeler and also has an affinity with Ukiyo-e and popular culture. Alfred is the recipient of a plethora of grants and awards. His work is included in the collections at the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Denver Art Museum, Colorado; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; National Gallery of Victoria, Australia; and Orange County Museum of Art, California, among others.