John M. Anderson Endowed Lecture Series Welcomes Deborah Brown

The Penn State School of Visual Arts (SoVA) is pleased to announce a visit by Deborah Brown as part of its John M. Anderson Endowed Lecture Series. Deborah Brown†works in†Bushwick, Brooklyn, a neighborhood she helped pioneer as an artist and where she started Storefront, one of the first artist-run galleries in the neighborhood. Her lecture titled "Deborah Brown: Bushwick Artist" will take place Tuesday, November 7, 2017, from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Palmer Lipcon Auditorium, Palmer Museum of Art.†

Her recent paintings, Runaways,†take†the†post-industrial†landscape of her†surroundings as the starting point†for narrative works that portray a female protagonist, her dog, and various avian companions in pastoral and urban settings.†The paintings are composed of thick slabs of paint applied with a palette knife,†punctuated by linear passages and off-register color patches. Seen together, the work offers†a fractured, brooding landscape, mirroring the internal psyche of the protagonist and channeling feelings of abjection, strength, and freedom.†Through its direct embrace of personal narrative,†Brown?s work offers a subtext of feminine empowerment and†artistic discovery.†Brown has an M.F.A. from Indiana University and a B.A. from Yale. Recent exhibitions include Lesley Heller Workspace, N.Y.; Mike Weiss Gallery, N.Y.; Life on Mars, Brooklyn, N.Y.; BravinLee programs, New York, N.Y.; and Angell Gallery, Toronto, Canada. She has an upcoming solo exhibition at GEARY Contemporary in September 2017.