Mark Anthony Brown Jr.

Mark Anthony Brown Jr. (born 1991) serves as a Strauch Early Career Fellow and Instructor in the Department of Art at Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. His interdisciplinary practice bridges artistic creation, archival research, and education across multiple geographic contexts including Cincinnati, Durham, Atlanta, and Ithaca.

His academic foundation includes:

• Bachelor of Science in Technology from Bowling Green State University
• Master of Fine Art in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (where he was an Ackland Art Museum fellow)

Brown's research critically examines vernacular aesthetic practices through the lens of Afrikan cultural retentions in the diaspora. His work investigates how everyday landscapes embody historical memory and cultural continuity, particularly through Southern U.S. contexts. Using photography as a foundational medium, he expands into sculpture, drawing, and printmaking to deconstruct power dynamics in spatial representation and challenge dominant historical narratives.

His recent artistic output (2022-2025) reveals consistent thematic evolution across diverse media. Works like 7682 (Site of Memory) and money tree (a dub) demonstrate sophisticated layering of archival materials with contemporary commentary, while series such as oxbow ballads explore temporal dimensions of cultural memory. The portfolio shows increasing integration of community engagement with conceptual rigor, particularly in Southern landscape interpretations.

Significant recognition includes:

• Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture Residency (2025)
• Shandaken: Storm King Residency (2024)
• Majorie Bond Rare Book Fellowship (2024)
• Emerging Lens Fellowship from ArtWORKS Chicago
• Nexus Fund grant from Atlanta Contemporary

As an archivist-educator, Brown integrates museum practice with community-based projects. His grants support deep archival research at institutions like UNC's Wilson Special Collections Library, while his teaching at Cornell emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches to visual representation. Current initiatives examine plantation landscapes through contemporary interventions, merging historical analysis with speculative future-making.

Brown's creative ecosystem operates through dynamic residencies and institutional partnerships. His ongoing collaboration with Shandaken: Storm King enables large-scale landscape interventions, while relationships with spaces like Artspace Raleigh facilitate community-responsive exhibitions. This network sustains his exploration of vernacular spaces as sites of cultural resistance and memory preservation.