Rashayla Marie Brown
Rashayla Marie Brown
Starr Fellow, Royal Academy Schools 2023-24.
Rashayla Marie Brown (RMB) is an “undisciplinary” artist, educator, and writer who changes narratives of power and access. She is an American descendant of slavery and Hungarian immigrants. Creating emotionally-engaging, audience-oriented artworks that critique form and aesthetics, RMB works in installation, photography, performance, writing, moving image, and institutional critique. Her artworks often blur the lines between pop culture, academia, and contemporary art to question the hierarchies that they allow to persist.
A lifelong nomad and PTSD survivor who has moved 25 times, RMB began an artistic practice as a poet and researcher in London, England and regularly travels to strategize for art institutions internationally. RMB founded the graphic design firm Selah Vibe, Inc. (2004-2011) and served as the inaugural Director of Diversity and Inclusion at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2013-2017). From 2016-2023, she ran an artist housing initiative, RMB Properties, to provide affordable leases to traveling artists in transition. RMB studied Arabic and French through a US Dept. of Ed. fellowship in Rabat, Morocco and holds degrees from Yale, SAIC, and Northwestern, trained by Paul Gilroy (sociology), Barbara DeGenevieve (photography), and D. Soyini Madison (performance) respectively.
Drawing from a background as a DJ, graphic designer and spoken word artist, her publications are often calls to action. As a writer, RMB’s viral essay “Open Letter to My Fellow Young Artists and Scholars on the Margins” was shared over 10K times online as of 2024. RMB’s work and words have been featured in Art Forum, Artsy, Hyperallergic, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Performa Magazine, Prospect.4 New Orleans, and the covers of Chicago Reader and New City. RMB is completing her Ph.D. in Performance Studies at Northwestern University.
Profile
Current RA Schools student
RA Schools student from 2023 to 2024
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Works by Rashayla Marie Brown
![Rashayla Marie Brown, Tamara's Repair: A Moving Image]()
Rashayla Marie Brown, Tamara's Repair: A Moving Image, 2023.
![Rashayla Marie Brown, Puro Teatro (for La Lupe)]()
Rashayla Marie Brown, Puro Teatro (for La Lupe), 2019.
![Rashayla Marie Brown, Rage to Master]()
Rashayla Marie Brown, Rage to Master, 2016.
![Rashayla Marie Brown, Reality Is Not Good Enough]()
Rashayla Marie Brown, Reality Is Not Good Enough, 2021.
![Rashayla Marie Brown, Your Place Isn't Safe]()
Rashayla Marie Brown, Your Place Isn't Safe, 2020.
![Rashayla Marie Brown, Your Place Isn't Safe]()
Rashayla Marie Brown, Your Place Isn't Safe, 2020.
![Rashayla Marie Brown, The Domestication Effect]()
Rashayla Marie Brown, The Domestication Effect, 2019.
![Rashayla Marie Brown, The Motion Picture Association for Maintaining Personal Ambivalence]()
Rashayla Marie Brown, The Motion Picture Association for Maintaining Personal Ambivalence, 2022.
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CV
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Education
2018-2021 Northwestern University | Ph.D. Student in Performance Studies | Evanston, IL
2018 Northwestern University | M.A. in Performance Studies | Evanston, IL
2011-2016 School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) | B.F.A., M.F.A. Coursework in Studio and Art History | Chicago, IL
2004 Yale University | B.A., African American Studies and Sociology | New Haven, CT
2003 Middlesex University | Coursework in Cultural Studies | London, England -
Selected presentations
2023 Tamara’s Repair: A Moving Image | Project Row Houses’ Southern Survey Biennial | Houston, TX
2023 Official Selection | Slamdance Film Festival | Park City, UT
2022 The Moving Picture Association for Maintaining Personal Ambivalence | Recess | Brooklyn, NY
2022 Reality Is Not Good Enough NY Premiere | Metrograph | New York, NY
2019 Refusal | La Becque Principal Residency Program | La-Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland
2018 Supreme Being | Tate Modern | London, England
2018 Supreme Being: The Symmetry of What You See and What You Say | Rhodes College | Memphis, TN
2016 Rage to Master: RMB Performs on the Occasion of KJM’s Retrospective (The M is for Master) | Museum of Contemporary Art | Chicago, IL
2015 The Unholy Trinity of Me, Myself and I | Museum of Contemporary Photography | Chicago, IL
2014 Vagabunda | Chicago Artists Coalition | Chicago, IL
2013 FreeMason: Pick Up the Pieces | Gene Siskel Film Center | Chicago, IL -
Selected awards
2022 Special Jury Mention | Chicago Underground Film Festival
2022 Special Jury Mention | Athens International Film + Video Festival
2021 Conquergood Award for Excellence in Performance Pedagogy | Northwestern University
2020 Breen Memorial Award for Excellence in Performance Practice | Northwestern University
2019 Propeller Fund | Andy Warhol Foundation and Threewalls
2019 Film Grant | Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, Atlanta, GA
2018 Franklin Furnace Grant | New York, NY
2017 Artadia Award
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