Born in the American South and living much of his adult life in Chicago, the multidisciplinary artist Roger Brown turned his sights westward in his final years. Inspired by the landscape and culture of the Southwest, Brown built a home and artistic environment in La Conchita, California, which he deemed his ‘Temple of Painting.’ This presentation features multiple facets of Brown’s latecareer developments, examining the formal relationships between Brown’s artistic manifestations during his time in La Conchita – including his iconic paintings, the innovative ‘Virtual Still Life’ series (in which he arranged specific objects on a shelf in front of a landscape painting), and assemblages. Brown’s interest in repetition and architectural gridding was paramount throughout his entire oeuvre. The ordered geometry of his paintings extended to his self-made environments. An active collector and supporter of folk and non-mainstream arts, Brown’s accumulation of objects became its own creative outlet – groupings became curated assemblages, sharing the language of his paintings. Specific to his time in La Conchita, ‘Virtual Still Life’ became the most elusive and enigmatic series of his storied career, a culmination of a lifetime dedicated to artistic experimentation.
