Lorna Brown facts for kids

Lorna Brown is a Canadian artist, writer, and curator. She was born in 1958. Her work often explores ideas about public spaces. She also looks at social topics, like what happens when people feel bored. She studies how art places and systems work.

Lorna Brown's Journey as an Artist

Lorna Brown was born in Oxbow, Saskatchewan, Canada. She began showing her art in 1984. She also taught art and design at universities. These included the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. She also taught at Simon Fraser University from 1989 to 1999.

From 1999 to 2004, Lorna Brown was the director of Artspeak. This is an artist-run center in Vancouver, B.C. Artist-run centers are places where artists can show their work. Currently, she is a curator at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. This gallery is at the University of British Columbia.

Art Exhibitions

Lorna Brown has shown her art in many exhibitions. An exhibition is a public display of artworks. Here are some of her past shows:

• Carets, strike-outs, underlines, circles and dots, 2014, Publication Studio, Vancouver, British Columbia.
• As One Does, Beside Yourself, 2014, AHVA Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia
• Threshold/Cont., 2009, Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery at the University of British Columbia.
• The Structure of Boredom (after Oden), The Chatter of Culture, 2007, Artspeak, Vancouver, British Columbia
• Cleave, 1999, Dazibao, Montreal, Quebec
• Once Removed, 1992, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
• Reading, 1990, Artspeak, Vancouver, British Columbia; Photographer's Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Belkin Satellite, Vancouver, British Columbia
• Measure, 1990, Evoking Place, Photographer's Gallery, Saskatoon Saskatchewan; Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec; Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa, Ontario; McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, Ontario

Curating Art Projects

Lorna Brown has been an independent curator since 2004. A curator chooses and organizes art for exhibitions. She worked on a public art project called Digital Natives. This project was for Vancouver's 125th anniversary.

Digital Natives used an electronic billboard. This billboard showed Twitter messages. The messages were in English and the Skwxwú7mesh language. The billboard was on Skwxwú7mesh territory.

Brown also curated Beginning with the Seventies. This project looked at feminism, art, and activism. It focused on Vancouver in the 1970s. This project led to several exhibitions. One was called GLUT in 2018. GLUT showed works by many women artists and writers.

Writing and Publications

Lorna Brown writes essays, reviews, and interviews. Her work appears in magazines like Fillip and The Capilano Review.

She also writes for exhibition catalogues and books. Here are some examples of her published writings:

• Beginning with the Seventies, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, 2019.
• Supplement: Critical and Bibliographic Review. Montreal Artexte Editions, Montreal, Quebec, 2009.
• Ethics of Luxury: Materialism and Imagination, Jeanne Randolph, Ihor Holubizky and Anthony Kiendl, YYZ Books, Toronto, Ontario; PlugIn Editions, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 2007.
• Detained by the Camera, Catalogue Essay: "Don Gill's D'Arcy Island", Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge, Alberta
• Directional Language, Off Printing: Situating Publishing Practices in Artist Run Centres, Conference Proceedings, RCAAQ, Quebec, 2005.
• Public Ideals, Prefix Photo 9, May 2004.
• Unfinished Business, The Rain Review of Books, Issue 4:2, Summer Autumn 2006, Vancouver.

Art Collections

Lorna Brown's art is part of several important collections. These collections keep artworks for the public. Some of these include:

• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
• Surrey Art Gallery
• Canada Council for the Arts - Art Bank
• British Columbia Arts Council

Awards and Recognition

Lorna Brown has received several awards for her work.

• Canada Council for the Arts Paris Studio Award, 2000.
• Recipient of the Vancouver Institute for the Visual Arts, 1996.