My art is based in observational drawing and painting, both figure and landscape. In the last several years I have produced two bodies of work: Living Veiled and The Migrants. Both address my continuing interest in the lives of women. The Living Veiled series addresses the issue of cultural traditions and the veiling of women, an ancient dress code that exists across many cultures, including my own. The Migrants are paintings and work on paper reflecting a concern for displaced populations. My most recent works are paintings of sky views Through the Empyrean. Started during the Covid lockdowns, this is a return to landscape and a search for a new way to approach this familiar subject. The floating circles and rectangles are a focus that reminded me I can only see a small piece of it all from my vantage point.
“Brown, in her art of social concern, does not provide answers. She only suggests questions with her evocative and pensive work. Brown nudges the viewer into a private space to wrestle with their conscience.” Nancy Kay Turner, The Paintings of Ada Pullini Brown — May 2022
BIOGRAPHY
Ada Pullini Brown is a visual artist, curator, retired Professor of Painting & Drawing at Rio Hondo College, and a co-founder of AtTravel, a painting residency program in France and Italy.
Born in Queens, New York, after graduating from the High School of Art & Design, Queens College, and the University of Houston, she first traveled to Europe to attend Bernard Pfriem's Sarah Lawrence College Lacoste School of the Arts. She studied painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture with Robert Bermalin, Rosemarie Beck, Gaberial Laderman, John Alexander, Michael Masur, and Mary Frank. She was an artist in residence at the Vermont Studio Center and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. Before leaving New York City for Southern California, she worked for art historian Barbara Rose at the Journal of Art and for Thea Westrich Art Advisory Service.
Her art has been exhibited in local, national, and international exhibits, with work held in private and public collections, including the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas, the Visual Arts & Crafts Academy of Germiston, South Africa, the UC Santa Barbara Archives of Self-Help Graphics, and the Prints & Drawing Collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).