Artist
Rashayla Marie Brown



I manage an “undisciplinary” studio practice through photography, performance, voice acting, writing, installation, and video. Exploring emotional vulnerability and self-mastery at the intersections of art history, religion, and popular culture, my work often uses the voice and the image to enact a code of ethics beyond mere representation. I also wish to create structures of equity in the contemporary art world through emotionally powerful installations, and I do this by exalting people from the historical margins and addressing the viewer directly through text.
My work is designed to be aesthetically pleasant while fiercely educational and emotional all at the same time. As a nomad who has moved 24 times, I prefer portable installations that use a variety of seductive or humorous literature and performance techniques with a multilingual perspective. I incorporate Black American popular culture, Buddhist and Muslim religious philosophies, and European and African art histories.
Not content to merely make beautiful images, I challenge cultural myths in my work, and so I would love to collaborate with a patron who has a sense of adventure and vision about the future of the art world.