Browns and Nudes

Browns and Nudes, a new large-scale public art banner by St. Louis-based artist Katherine Simóne Reynolds, will be installed on the north side of the Wesley Student Center, home of Public Space One (PS1) at 120 N. Dubuque St., this week. The official unveiling will occur during Hancher and PS1’s Dazzle Crawl Northside/Downtown art walk parade on Friday, April 27. The Crawl runs from 5-7pm, and will stop at Browns and Nudes between 5:25-5:35p.

Reynolds describes her piece as "reflecting upon the language used to describe colors of brown and nude lipsticks found in the beauty aisle. This piece is exploring the complicated relationship that Black women have with being included in the “beauty” part of the beauty industry."

The Center for Afrofuturist Studies (CAS), a program housed at PS1 supporting the work of artists of color, welcomed interdisciplinary artist Katherine Simóne Reynolds as an artist-in-residence in September 2017, during which she developed the idea for and photographed Browns and Nudes, which plays off a 1970s-era makeup advertisement. The CAS curator Anaïs Duplan says: “Reynolds' photographic work imagines the black figures it portrays with aesthetic attention, care, and esteem. In Browns and Nudes, Reynolds explores the mythology of the social standard of beauty while celebrating Black women's magnificence.” Reynolds has exhibited and presented her work, which has been described as “literal, authentic, and emotional” conceptual storytelling, nationally; more can be seen at her website: http://theunsuspended.com

This project is supported by: Public Space One, the Wesley Student Center, Hancher, the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Iowa City Downtown District, the City of Iowa City Public Art Advisory Committee, and Legacies for Iowa: a University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art Collections-Sharing Project, supported by the Matthew Bucksbaum Family.