Iona Rozeal Brown

Infusing Japanese Ukiyo-e compositions with hip-hop styling, American painter Iona Rozeal Brown (born 1966) investigates in her electrifying narrative canvases the globalization and appropriation of ethnic cultures. Brown's hybridities, which she terms "Afro Asiatic allegories," draw on the many parallels between Ukiyo-e and hip-hop--their narrative content, graphic sophistication and broad popular appeal--ultimately revealing the fluidity of history, identity and fashion. For the exhibition which this monograph accompanies, MOCA Cleveland has commissioned a new series of paintings from Brown. In the resulting work, which is based in part on Japanese prints from the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, Brown creates an epic visual tale in which the artist's heroine embodies the qualities that she hopes to inspire in young women and men--confidence, courage and sincerity.