LaKela Brown

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | LaKela Brown is a Detroit-born, New York-based visual artist. She received a BFA in 2005 from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. Her sculptural relief works evoke ancient art forms such as hieroglyphic wall carvings or cuneiform relief tablets, with imagery that references 1990s hip-hop culture. Brown's works are presented as artifacts from another era that have been discovered and placed on display for an examination that is as much anthropological as aesthetic. By hearkening back to ancient Greco-Roman methods of mark-making, Brown presents a meditation on how objects are historicized, represented, and abstracted in a museological context.

Brown has participated in solo and group exhibitions globally, including at Reyes | Finn, Detroit; 56 Henry, NY; Swiss Institute (SI), NY; WE BUY GOLD, NY; Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), NY; and Lars Friedrich Gallery, Berlin. She has presented a solo installation of her work at Rockefeller Center in partnership with Art Production Fund and at The Armory Show in 2023 with 56 Henry. Brown’s work resides in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC; and Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, IL.

Sources: 56 Henry, MoCAD

Images: left, Composition with 35 Golden Doorknocker Impressions 2021; right, Hands Grasping Collard Greens After Coreen Simpson, 2024