Dr. Chasitie Brown

Biography

Chasitie Brown is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History and the Center for Latin American Visual Studies (CLAVIS) at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in contemporary art from Latin America and the Caribbean, with a focus on Cuban art and art criticism. Her research interests encompass representations of race, gender, and history in contemporary Cuban art, particularly in relation to the global diaspora and Spain, with a specific focus on the Canary Islands. Chasitie is currently writing her dissertation titled 'The Dormant Scar: Art, Race, and the Cuba Queloides Exhibition Series (1997–2012),' which provides a monographic study of a series of group exhibitions known as Queloides that addressed the silenced issues of contemporary Cuban society, notably anti-Black racism. Through a lens of various media including photography and painting, her work argues how the participating artists challenged traditional representations of Blackness rooted in Afro-derived religion and folklore by employing humor and irony to dispute dominant stereotypes and historical narratives that have excluded Black presence. Additionally, her project 'Transatlantic Crossings: Cuban Art and Artist Networks in Spain' examines the experiences of Cuban artists in the late 1990s and early 2000s, reimagining and engaging with history from the perspective of Cuba while highlighting the exchanges and networks formed between artists, art critics, and curators across Cuba and the Canary Islands, which fostered a unique relational kinship founded on shared experiences.

Research Interests