Born in 1951 in Glendale, CA, James hd Brown relocated with his family to Oaxaca, Mexico in 1995 where he founded Carpe Diem Press. Collaborating with Gabriel and Judith Quintas of Linotípográfica Quintas, Brown creates limited edition artists’ books featuring the work of influential artists from the United States and Mexico. He often includes original prints made by the artists to be inserted in the books themselves. Some of the artists included in the Carpe Diem series are Joan Jonas, Graciela Iturbide, Kiki Smith, and Francisco Toledo. Brown will be producing a new book with Graciela Iturbide especially for Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA.
Brown’s exhibition will also feature his “My Other House” series, begun in 2009 and worked on continuously since then. The idea for this project came to Brown after his two sons, while living “in a forgotten house in the wildness of Mexico, somewhere outside of Oaxaca” discovered a staircase leading to an “almost secret” mezzanine. Nobody else was allowed access to this place, a sanctuary that the boys called “my other house”. “My Other House” is a metaphor for that imaginative space essential to living a creative life. Works from this series, along with Carpe Diem Press books will be installed in the four main galleries at the USC Fisher Museum of Art.
USC Fisher Museum of Art is the only Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA partner featuring an exhibition dedicated to an LA-born expatriate artist. Brown has lived and worked in Mexico for the past 22 years, and Fisher’s exhibition will demonstrate his ongoing creative dialogue and exchange with Mexican art, artists, and culture.
"James hd Brown: Life and Work in Mexico" is part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles, taking place from September 2017 through January 2018 at more than 70 cultural institutions across Southern California