Elliott Jerome Brown Jr. (born 1993) is a queer black American artist and photographer. In 2019 they received an Emerging Visual Arts Grant by The Rema Hort Mann Foundation.

Early life and education

In 2017, Brown graduated with a BFA from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

at the

Tisch School of Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch i ...

. They also attended the

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture is an artists residency located in Madison, Maine, just outside of Skowhegan. Every year, the program accepts online applications from emerging artists from November through January, and selects 65 ...

in 2017.

Work

Brown's work is inspired by Deana Lawson,

Carrie Mae Weems Carrie Mae Weems (born April 20, 1953) is an American artist working in text, fabric, audio, digital images and Video installation, installation video, and is best known for her photography. She achieved prominence through her early 1990s photog ...

, and

Lorna Simpson Lorna Simpson (born August 13, 1960) is an American photographer and multimedia artist whose works have been exhibited both nationally and internationally. In 1990, she became one of the first African-American women to exhibit at the Venice Bien ...

. Their work started with a focus on self portraiture to examine the complexities of gender and identity. Brown's work speaks to the black

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

body by using the intimacy of

portraiture A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better re ...

as a means to question preconceived notions of maleness and blackness. Brown has been commissioned by media outlets and fashion designers, including ''

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'' a ...

'', ''Gayletter Magazine'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, Habit (psychology), habit or item generally considered morally wrong in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhe ...

'', ''

Teen Vogue ''Teen Vogue'' is an American progressive online publication, formerly in print, launched in January 2003, as a sister publication to '' Vogue'', targeted at teenage girls and young women. Like ''Vogue'', it included stories about fashion and ...

'', ''

Dazed ''Dazed'' (''Dazed & Confused'' until February 2014) is a quarterly British lifestyle magazine founded in 1991. It covers music, fashion, film, art, and literature. ''Dazed'' is published by Dazed Media, an independent media group known for produ ...

'', ''

W Magazine ''W'' (or ''W Magazine'') is an American fashion magazine that was launched in 1972 as a sister publication to ''Women's Wear Daily''. The magazine features stories about style through the lens of art, celebrity, culture, fashion and film. Ba ...

'', and

Telfar Clemens Telfar Clemens (born 1985) is a Liberian-American fashion designer and the founder of the fashion label Telfar. Clemens won the 2017 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, and won the CFDA Fashion Award for American Accessories Designer of the Year in 2020 ...

. Their work has been featured by ''W Magazine'', ''Vice'', and ''

The Fader ''The Fader'' is a magazine established in 1999 as an outlet for Cornerstone Agency, a marketing and public relations firm established by Rob Stone and Jon Cohen. The magazine covers music, style and culture. History and work It is owned by T ...

''. In 2017, Brown co-curated the seventh annual "Zine and Self-Published Photo Book Fair" with Devin N. Morris, titled ''Rock Paper Scissors and a Three-Armed Shovel''.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

* ''Arms to pray with'', Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York City, 2019

Group exhibitions

* ''Stranger Thing,'' Outpost Artists Resources, Ridgewood, NY, 2017 * ''Four'', Sargents' Daughters, New York City, 2018 * ''Daybreak: New Affirmations in Queer Photography'',

Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (LLMA), formerly the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, is a visual art museum in SoHo, Lower Manhattan, New York City. It mainly collects, preserves and exhibits visual arts created by LGBTQ artists or ...

, New York City, 2018 * ''Do You Love Me?'', P.P.O.W., New York City, 2019 * ''On Refusal: Representation & Resistance in Contemporary American Art,'' The Mac, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 2019 * ''Quiver of Voices'', LTD Los Angeles, online exhibition, 2020 * ''Mien'', TRNK, online exhibition, 2020

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Elliott Jerome, Jr. American LGBTQ photographers 21st-century American photographers African-American photographers Tisch School of the Arts alumni Living people 1993 births Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture alumni