Spanning video, sculpture, drawing, writing, performance, and the podcast 1-800-POWERS, Lex Brown’s incisive artworks confront pressing social conditions of our time, from gentrification and greenwashing to police violence, but do so through an irreverent and sometimes jarring use of humor. Steeped in satire and slapstick, her works borrow the visual tropes and intonations of pop culture, social media, and corporate branding. As a central performer in her videos and performance works, Brown mimics and lampoons these sources in order to illuminate the absurdities, contradictions, and exploitative designs of late-capitalism and its social constructs.
Image: Lex Brown, Communication (still), 2021. 4k video, color, sound. 30 min. Courtesy of the artist.