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Eli Brown lives and works in Boston. An interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture, drawing, and community organizing, Eli explores gender through time and intergenerational dynamics. His practice revolves around learning trans-ness as a lineage, and as an evolutionary phenomenon that is not always human. Eli's research is both experiential and rooted in queer ecologies, which bridges queer theory and environmental science, and challenges the problematic foundations of evolutionary biology and speciesism which continue to inform our bodily experiences. They are especially interested in asking what the future of human evolution could look like if we imagined reproduction as a queer, ecological strategy.

 

Recent work has been featured at Flux Factory, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Tailgate Projects in Tampa, FL., and Creative Time Summit X.

Education

2018  MFA, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston, MA

2008  BA, Visual Art, Smith College, Northampton, MA

2007  San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA

 

Awards

2022  St Botolph Club Emerging Artist Award  

2022  Ecotopian Toolkit Grant, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

2022  Residency, Franconia Sculpture Park 

2021  Collective Futures Fund, Tufts + The Andy Warhol Foundation

2021  Now + There Public Art Accelerator

2020  Assets for Artists Capacity-Building Grant, MASS MoCA

2020  Residency, Studios at MASS MoCA

2019  Fellowship for Utopian Practice, Culture Push

2018  Collaborate Boston Grant, The Boston Foundation

2017  TIE Artist Grant, Tufts Institute of the Environment, Tufts University

2017  Cathryn Griffith Award in Best Design and Concept, First Place in SMFA Graphic Arts

2004  National Scholastic Gold Award in Writing, Personal Essay/Memoir

 

Solo Exhibitions + Public Artwork

2022  Beam Me Down, Lopresti Park, Boston, MA

2021  Bright Holes, Broad Scars, Tailgate Projects, Tampa, FL 

2020  How to Make Slime, New Bedford Art Museum, New Bedford, MA

2019  Museum of Queer Ecologies, Distillery Gallery, Boston, MA

 

Selected Group Shows + Performances

2022  Ecotopian Toolkit, Independence Seaport Museum, Philadelphia, PA (upcoming)

2021  New Faculty: Connections, Crosstown Arts, Memphis, TN

2021  Din Din, Flux Factory, Queens, NY

2020  Out of Place, Fountain Street Gallery, Boston, MA 

2019  The deCordova Biennial, deCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA (catalogue)

2019  Call and Response, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA

2018  Celebrate People's History, Stamps Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

2018  Ourselves, University of Rhode Island, Providence, RI 

2018  Spaceus: Mapping Worlds, Roslindale Substation, Boston, MA

2018  T(HERE) MFA Thesis Exhibition, Tufts University, Medford, MA

2017  Graphic Arts Prize Winners, The Museum of Fine Arts Huntington Library, Boston, MA

2017  Betwixt/Between, Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, MA

2016  Graphic Content, Healthy Teen Network’s 37th Annual National Conference, Las Vegas, NV

2016  trans/draw, Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA

2011  Small Works for Big Change, Art Benefit for the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Jack Studios, New York, NY

2011  One Of A Kind: Unique Artists Books, Pierre Menard Gallery, Cambridge, MA (catalogue)

2010  Antigone: A Genderqueered Act of Resistance, Brecht Forum, and House of Yes, New York, NY    

2010  My Prosthetic and I, St. John The Divine, New York, NY        

2009  Room for Cream: A Live Lesbian Soap Opera, La Mama, New York, NY        

 

Collaborations + Community Projects

2022  trans species database, Ecotopian Toolkit, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 

2020  Trans Family Archives, Flux Factory and Parallel Performance Space, New York, NY (ongoing)

2018  Boston Resilience Collaborative, Fenway Health Center, BAGLY, and Simmons College, Boston, MA

2016  Poster Design, 7th Annual Social Justice in Education Conference, Teacher Activist Group, Boston, MA

2015  A Person of Their Own, Advocates for Youth, 1 in 3 Campaign, Washington, D.C.

2013  Youth Day Collaborative Visioning Workshop, CASFS, University of California Santa Cruz, CA

2013  Rooted in Community National Youth Leadership Conference, Community Services, Los Angeles, CA

 

Presentations

2022  trans species database, Ecotopian Toolkit Project, Public Field Walk, Philadelphia, PA

2019  Caring About Care, Panel Discussion, Creative Time Summit X, New York, NY

2019  Artist Talk + Interactive Workshop, deCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA

2018  Artist Q + A, n(arture), Tufts University, Medford, MA

 

Selected Texts + Publications

2022  Artists and the Practice of Agriculture, Routledge’s Critical Food Studies (upcoming)

2021  Culture-Culture (upcoming)

2022  Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, Mycologies Issue 

2021  CURA: A Literary Magazine of Art and Action, Issue 22: Boundless, Fordham University

2020  Celebrate People’s History; edited by Josh Macphee, Feminist Press

2014  Transplants: Sowing the Seed of Gender in the Garden, internationally distributed zine

2013  Not Your Mother’s Meatloaf: A Queer Sex Education Comic Book; Soft Skull Press

2011  One of A Kind: Unique Artists Books; Lame Duck Press

2004  This Cowboy, The Best Teen Writing of 2004; Scholastic Press

 

Selected Press

2021  Sallwen, Alli, Interview in Boston Art Review, Rooted issue

2020  Lopez Casell, Dessane, “Vivid Posters Chart a “People’s History” of the Struggle for Social Justice,” 

      Hyperallergic

2020  Boer, Sam, “Maybe I’ll Do Something With It”: Comics as Alternative Sex Education, Studies in Comics,

      Volume 11, Number 1

2019  "Eli Brown: Museum of Queer Ecologies at Distillery Gallery,” Art New England

2019  Mcquaid, Cate, “The Ticket: What’s Happening In The Local Arts Scene,” The Boston Globe

2019  Reynolds, Pamela, “At The Distillery Gallery, Artist Eli Brown Explores Biology And Gender In

      ‘Museum Of Queer Ecologies’,” WBUR, The ARTery 

2019  Reynolds, Pamela, “At deCordova, New England Artists Take A Biennial Bow,WBUR, The ARTery   

2019  Carlock, Marty, “deCordova New England Biennial 2019,” Sculpture Magazine          

2019  Malone, Callan, “Where Are You Now?  10 Summer Exhibitions Worth The Trip,” CULTURED

2019  Klehm, Nance, “Spontaneous Vegetation,” lumpenradio, 105.5 FM WLPN LP, Chicago, IL

2018  Clark, Edward, “Check out Eli Brown’s Artwork,” Boston Voyager

2016  Adams, Samuel, “trans/draw at Gallery 263: Gender Outside the Lines,” Big, Red, and Shiny, Feature

2013  Camper, Cathy, “Not Your Mother’s Meatloaf: A Sex Education Comic BookLambda Literary

Collections

Printed Matter, New York, New York

Little Berlin, Philadelphia, PA

School of the Museum of Fine Arts W. Van Alan Clark, Jr. Library, Boston, MA

Barnard College Zine Library, New York, NY

Hampshire College Zine Library, Amherst, MA

Certifications

2013 Certificate in Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, UC Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA

2011 Certificate in Urban Permaculture Design, New York Permaculture Exchange, New York, NY

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