Brownell named 2007 Faculty Scholar

Tue., Nov 13

Her luminous oil paintings of twisting, entwined fruits that recall strands of DNA have captured the attention and imagination of the art world as well as the public, and now Mia Brownell, associate professor of art, is receiving recognition from her peers. Chosen as the recipient of Southern's Faculty Scholar Award for 2007, she was honored at a campus ceremony on Nov. 12. The award committee selected Brownell based on her series of large oil paintings on canvas entitled "Complexities of the Garden." 

The award caps an exciting few months for Brownell: she was Southern's nominee for a CSUS Board of Trustees Research Award last spring, and currently her work is being exhibited in a solo show at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. 

The exhibit's title, "Proteomics," refers to the study of proteins expressed by genes within an organism, with applications in the understanding of disease and in drug development. Brownell's paintings portray intertwined clusters of ripe fruit spiraling in meandering structures suspended in space. Employing dramatic chiaroscuro, her still-life fantasies simultaneously recall Dutch Old Master paintings and the coiling structures of DNA, amino acids and protein chains.

Art historian and critic Donald Kuspit of Stony Brook University describes Brownell's series of paintings as "standing between the supermarket and the museum - in the commercial cornucopia of modern America and in the grand tradition of Old Master still life. Brownell takes a long-established genre, considered minor in the modernist canon, and serves up a meditation on the genetic modification of food, inviting us to celebrate and wonder at the rapturous beauty and poignant fragility of nature."

In their letter of recommendation, the SCSU Faculty Scholar Award committee described Brownell's art thus: "(Her) large-scale canvases treat the theme of common foodstuffs and their relationship to modern industry and scientific inquiry. With utmost fidelity to natural appearance, they depict transient comestibles, mainly grapes, pears, peaches, and apples, in abstract patterns that bring to mind strands of DNA, genetic codes, and other unseen forces essential to life.

"Insofar as they imitate fruit to explore the inner workings of nature, these images belong to traditions of still-life painting that have roots in the Renaissance and Baroque periods.  They also reflect, by virtue of their patterned compositions, the aesthetics of more recent expressionist movements.  Yet Mia's paintings remain fundamentally new and unexpected in their conception and execution."

"Complexities of the Garden" has already left a significant impression upon artists, art historians, museum personnel and critics of art.  The paintings have been put before the public in solo and group exhibitions in major American cities such as New York, Boston, Chicago and Washington, and have traveled abroad on at least two occasions.  They have been published and reviewed in such publications as Artvoice, Gastronomica: Journal of Food and Culture, The Philadelphia Enquirer, The New York Times and the upcoming 2007 issue of Chicago Art Journal, among others.

Kuspit writes that Brownell's works "give one hope for the future of art. They show that painting is far from dead, and that beauty is still possible in art, and can still be discovered in nature."
Brownell is also currently exhibiting work in Port Louis, Mauritius, through the U.S. Department of State's Art in Embassies Program. She has had solo shows at Big Orbit Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y., Castellani Art Museum, Niagara Falls, N.Y., Duke University's Brown Gallery, Durham, N.C., Metaphor Contemporary Art, Brooklyn, N.Y., and Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art, Boston. "Proteomics" is her first solo exhibition in Washington, D.C.

Information about the show, which runs through Dec. 20, can be found at http://www7.nationalacademies.org/arts/Mia_Brownell_Paintings.html