Rashayla Brown

Artist-scholar Rashayla Marie Brown (RMB) manages an “undisciplinary” studio practice through photography, performance, writing, installation, and video. A lifelong nomad who has moved 24 times, she began her artistic practice as a poet in London and as the founder of the graphic design company Selah Vibe, Inc. in Atlanta. From 2013–17, RMB served as the inaugural Director of Diversity and Inclusion at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). An Artadia and Franklin Furnace grantee, RMB has presented work internationally at Tate Modern, London; Krabbesholm Højskole, Copenhagen; Turbine Hall, Johannesburg; and in commissions at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco; Rhodes College, Memphis; among others. Her work and words appear in Artforum, Blouin Modern Painters, Hyperallergic, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Prospect.4 New Orleans, Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art (Contemporary Arts Museum Houston), and the cover of the Chicago Reader. Her essay “Open Letter to My Fellow Young Artists and Scholars on the Margins” was shared over 10,000 times online. RMB holds degrees from Yale, SAIC, and Northwestern.

Photo by Nathan Keay