Joan Brown at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Joan Brown is included in Taking Space: Contemporary Women Artists and the Politics of Scale at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The exhibition, which opens Thursday November 19, draws from the museum’s permanent collection to examine the different approaches of women artists whose work engages or challenges ideas of space, whether it be physically or critically.

Brown is represented by her 1976 Self-Portrait, which was recently acquired by the museum. In an interview for the exhibition, curator Jodi Throckmorton elaborated on the work: “…Joan Brown is someone, for example, who we have an incredible self portrait by her in the exhibition that is essentially a parody of what people think a female artist is. [It] shows Joan Brown in like a 1950s cocktail dress and high heels, painting a dainty, still-life of a flower in gloves, you know, and then you look on the floor and there’s just paint everywhere. So that’s the clue, this is how Joan Brown really worked on the bottom here.”

Taking Space is on view through April 11, 2021. More information here. 

Read an interview with curators Brittany Webb and Jodi Throckmorton on Artblog.