
Photo by Jeanie Black, Courtesy Adobe Krow Archives
The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) kicks off the opening of its newest exhibition with a world premiere on Friday, January 31. The opening reception of Vivian Browne: My Kind of Protest, organized in collaboration with The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., is free to the public and includes a cash bar and exclusive gallery access to showcase the life and work of American artist and activist Vivian Browne.
My Kind of Protest will be the first time that Browne’s work from throughout her entire career will be on public display. Attendees at the January 31 premiere will be among the first to see those works on paper, including paintings, drawings, collages, and prints, all of which highlight her activism for racial equality and feminism.
Browne spent more than three decades as an artist. Her work touched on subjects of power, political systems, and intersectional feminism. She was a founder of the Black Emergency Coalition, which fought for Black representation in New York museums, and was the founder of SoHo20, one of the first women’s cooperatives in Manhattan.

Image courtesy of RYAN LEE Gallery
The exhibition title, My Kind of Protest, dates back to a 1986 conversation published in the Journal of Art and Influence in which Browne says, “During the Civil Rights Era, one had to paint Black themes, Black people, Black ideas. I didn’t…I was painting my kind of protest, but it didn’t look like Black art.”
“This is really the first retrospective to explore her entire career,” says Amara Antilla, who co-curated the exhibition alongside Adrienne L. Childs. “This show was, in part, a project to help bring her legacy and the works she has created throughout her life so that viewers can really understand her impact, her voice, and her power.”
“She paints with a level of honesty and self-awareness that we don’t often see, and that is what I think is political about the work, that invitation to look and to see the world differently,” says Antilla.

Courtesy Adobe Krow Archives and RYAN LEE Gallery
My Kind of Protest displays 45 pieces of Browne’s works. The exhibit is broken down into thematic groups which reflect her tendencies to work in series and subsequently redefine her approach to making art. The three main sections include her early works, including portraiture and images capturing the relationships of friends and colleagues; abstraction and internationalism; and her late works, which reflect her ecological concerns.
“I think those works speak very well to her approach to activism. Her work is subversive but not by force. She pictures these new worlds, be they seascapes or rhythmic patterns or gestural figures, and they exude a subtle invitation to think about the world differently,” says Antilla.
Vivian Browne: My Kind of Protest will be viewable at the CAC from January 31 to May 25, then make its way to Washington, D.C. to join The Phillips Collection.
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