OCMA (Orange County Museum of Art)

Comprising over forty colorful paintings and sculptures, Joan Brown spans the engaging career of one of California’s most important artists. Deeply embedded in the Bay Area art scene, Joan Brown (b. 1938, San Francisco; d. 1990, Puttaparthi, India) drew inspiration from many sources to create works that merge autobiography, fantasy, and whimsy, with weightier metaphysical and spiritual themes. This retrospective is the most expansive presentation on the artist’s work in more than twenty years, charting the turns and devotions of a vision that was once dismissed by critics as unserious but was rooted firmly in impassioned curiosity and research and remains uniquely compelling today.

Joan Brown is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition is curated by Janet Bishop, Thomas Weisel Family Chief Curator and Curator of Painting and Sculpture, SFMOMA, and Nancy Lim, Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture, SFMOMA. OCMA’s presentation is organized by Courtenay Finn, Chief Curator at OCMA, with support from OCMA’s entire staff.