Akea Brionne Brown Artist Talk
Thursday, March 5th
7 -pm
Hamiltonian: 1353 U Street, NW
Open to all
JOIN US for an evening with Akea Brionne Brown, talking about her current solo show "A Brown Millennial" on Thursday, March 5, at 7pm.
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In her most autobiographical installation yet, Akea Brionne Brown builds A Brown Millennial with powerful photographic portraits infused with aesthetics of Americana, vast swaths of color rooted in history and culture, and interactive texts that challenge what is personal and political.
In her own words, this work is a reflection of Brown’s world and what it means to exist as a young, black, American woman in a time where everything feels uncertain. In response to both personal events and political systems, ìA Brown Millennial exists to invite viewers into the contemplations and worries that consume the artist. Breaking away from the flatness of the photographic plane, Brown creates an immersive environment using pop culture phenomena like Buzzfeed Privilege Quizzes and paper takeaways and invites the viewer to engage with what may be uncomfortable.
Images from the past are a window into the present. Brown uses found textiles and personal history to examine contemporary politics in her own eyes: ìI open up an honest dialogue about the topics that have been consuming my consciousness, specifically the contemporary state of African Americans and blacks throughout the continental United States. The installation is built with urgent simultaneousness that can only be described as the reality of any millennial grappling with these intersectional issues. Representation and beauty within an American context are taken on powerfully through her portraits transforming textiles and the body; the overwhelming effects of mass incarceration on the black community are explored vulnerably; the diminishing awareness of ancestral practices that were erased through slavery and the great migration are alluded to through cultural signifiers from her homes of New Orleans and New Mexico. The reality of privilege is unpacked elegantly, and real questions are asked of the viewer.
Akea is a lens-based artist whose work investigates the implications of historical racial and social structures in relation to contemporary black life in 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.
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.