Bentley Brown
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Art Building 900 S. Forest Mall 251 Tempe, AZ 85281
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Mail code: 0505Campus: Tempe
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Bentley Brown is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and art historian based in Phoenix, AZ and the Bronx, NY. His research explores the pioneering role of Black artists and Black creative spaces within New York City’s contemporary art movements of the late 1960s through the mid 1980s. In his artistic practice, inspired by African American cultural production, abstract and figurative expressionist approaches to artistic process and the desert landscape of his native Phoenix, Brown uses the mediums of canvas, found objects, photo-collage, and film to explore themes of Black identity, cosmology, and American interculturalism.
New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, PhD Art History
New York University, Center for Experimental Humanities, MA Interdisciplinary Studies, M.A.
University College London, Centre for Multidisciplinary and Intercultural Inquiry, MA African Studies
Fordham University, Gabelli School of Business, B.A
Post War American Art, Modern and Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora, Intermedia, and 20th Century Photography.
“The Abstract Musicality of Frederick J. Brown,” Frieze, August 2024
“Malcolm Mooney, Can Yoo Doo Right,” Galerie Max Mayer, November 2023
“Uncanny Interiors: Nicola Vassel,” Artforum, August 2022.
“Dr. Charles Smith: White Columns,” Artforum, July 2022
“Mooney and “the Music,” a review of ‘Works: 1970–1986’ at Ulrik, NYC,” Berlin Artlink, July 2022
“Fred Brown: Doing his Own Thing” Berry Campbell Gallery, Frederick J. Brown: The Sound of Color, September 2021
Courses
2026 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
| ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
| ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
| ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ARS 494 | Special Topics |
| ARS 494 | Special Topics |
2026 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ARS 100 | Introduction to Art |
| ARS 100 | Introduction to Art |
| ARS 100 | Introduction to Art |
| ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ARS 494 | Special Topics |
| ARS 494 | Special Topics |
2025 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
| ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
| ARS 102 | Art Renaissance to Modernism |
| ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ARS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ARS 493 | Honors Thesis |
| ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ARS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
On this Spot: Stories of Pioneering Women Artists, Advisory Board, 2024-Present
Chief Curator, and Director Brooklyn College Art Gallery, 2024-2025
Independent Curator, 2019-Present
- Frederick J. Brown: Energy is Jazz, American Jazz Museum, October 2023
- Love By Looking: Selections from the Collection of Alitash Kebede, The Mitchell Gallery at St. John’s College, April 2023- July 2023
- Order|Reorder: Experiments with Collections, Hudson River Museum, February 2022 - September 2023
- Frederick J. Brown: Dreams and the Possibility Of…, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling, June 2019 - August 2020