Inga Kimberly Brown
My recent works are oil paintings on sewn canvas panels and
unsewn canvases on which a hybridization takes place through
the implementation of three-dimensional objects that are either
sewn on or attached with adhesive, threads, and paint, along with
organic materials such as eggshells and holy water. I combine
seed beads, faux grass, and 24-karat gold leaf, as well as oil on
wooden extensions of the canvas. The work shows elements of
ritual and tradition.
For inspiration, I use family photographs as well as nonphotographic
references from my imagination and intuition to
paint what my mind sees and wants to convey in the painting. The
focus is an abstract dialogue with my mixed tri-racial heritage,
taking place in the antebellum and postbellum South as filtered
through my mind and vision. In some of the paintings, I subtract
color to add a past, or create mythical visions of a bastardized
culture, juxtaposed with the saturated color of the present.
The compositions explore conflict and isolation, while sharing
narratives of the African-American, European-American, and
Indigenous-American heritage I embody. The hybridization of the
materials in the work becomes autobiographical.