Inga Kimberly Brown

Region: South

Website: http://www.ingakimberlybrown.com

City / State: Philadelphia , PA

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.