di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art is pleased to co-present Oxbow School’s lively Artist Lecture Series. On five evenings each semester, Oxbow and local communities gather to hear working artists talk about their creative process and listen to their views on what art is, what art means, and how artists think. These lectures are free and open to the public and have included such artists as Roy De Forest, Wayne Thiebaud, Squeak Carnwath, William Wiley, Inez Storer, and Deborah Oropallo.
Akea Brionne Brown is a photographer, writer, curator, and researcher whose personal work investigates the implications of historical racial and social structures in relation to the development of contemporary black life and identity within America. With a particular focus on the ways in which history influences the contemporary cultural milieu of the American black middle class, she explores current political and social themes, as they relate to historical forms of oppression, discrimination, and segregation in American history.
Free lecture takes place in the CIA Copia auditorium from 7 – 8:30 pm.
Artist Biography: Akea Brionne has received the Visual Task Force Award from the National Association of Black Journalists. Her work is also featured in the Smithsonian’s Ralph Rinzler Collection and Archives, and was recently acquired by the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art Collection. She was announced the 2018 Winner for Duke University’s Center for Documentary Arts Collection Award, as the 2018 Documentarian of Color. Her series, Black Picket Fences, was acquired for their permanent collection, and is on preserve at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. She was nominated for PDN’s 30 (Photo District News) 2018: New and Emerging Photographers to Watch. Brown was recently named the 2019 Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize Winner, juried by Laylah Ali, William Powhida, and Regina Basha.
Akea received her BFA (2018) from the Maryland Institute College of Art, in the dual degree program of Photography and Humanities. She is originally from New Orleans, Louisiana and is currently based in Baltimore, Maryland.
akeabrionnebrown.com
