Artist Statement
I was raised in southern New Mexico and spent much of my childhood roaming the high desert surrounding my hometown. The desert is isolating, indifferent, and often unwelcoming — yet it offers moments of startling beauty. That stark contrast, deeply etched into my perception, continues to shape my aesthetic toward the austere and the empty. This sensibility is central to my work and is reflected in pieces such as Cortez Gas, Las Cruces, New Mexico.
My New Mexico upbringing also exposed me early to the visual language of Día de los Muertos, where symbols of death and decay are treated with celebration and reverence. This influence appears throughout my work, particularly in still life paintings and prints like Still Life with Beach Towel, where calaveras often appear — not as morbid emblems, but as reminders of the beauty and humor in impermanence.
My paintings aim to evoke quiet presence — to honor the spaces, objects, and atmospheres that linger at the edges of memory and meaning.
Biography
J.S. Brown was born and raised in southern New Mexico and has pursued art in various forms throughout his life. He has lived in the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Italy, France, Afghanistan, and the Netherlands, and currently resides in Washington, D.C.
Though formally educated in History and Economics, Mr. Brown is a self-taught artist. His aesthetic sensibility was shaped early on by the work of Los Cinco Pintores in his home state and further refined through years spent visiting museums and galleries around the world.
Mr. Brown works primarily in oil painting, drawing (pastel, charcoal, and Conté crayon), and printmaking (linocut, woodcut, and drypoint). His artwork is held in private collections in Washington, D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Glasgow, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Hamburg, and Maastricht. He has exhibited in galleries in both Washington, D.C., and New York City.
Mr. Brown is currently seeking gallery representation.