Native to Boston’s North Shore, self-taught artist Anne Brown has been widely recognized for her ‘sculpture to wear’ necklaces created between the 1960’s and 1990’s. Her work derives from collecting natural and manmade discarded materials which she then responds to, creating an intimate dialogue that a person can exhibit by wearing.

These often narrative necklaces were brought to fruition through her own life experiences and observations. A mother of two children by the time she was 22, Brown made daily trips to a local fish market and found inspiration in the delicate, yet strong, nature of fish bones. The bones were incorporated into her practice as components of jewelry. From there, she started to think of other organic materials that could be worn. These included insects, flattened frogs, dried bird feet, and similar remains, some of which were brought to her by neighborhood children and her cats.

In the 1970s, Anne Brown co-founded “Seven At Large,” a group of female artists which included photographer Olivia Parker. This led to the seminal show “Organic Visions, Seven at Large”, (1977-78) at The Boston Museum of Science. Receiving increasing recognition, her work was featured in a three part exhibition “American Images I & II” at the Goethe Institute between 1974-76 in Boston, MA. In 1981, Brown’s work was chosen as one of ten contemporary jewelry artists presented at the “International Collectors Seminar” at the Cooper Hewitt Museum of Design in NYC.

As a female artist, Anne found ways to rally against the patriarchy in subtle, and sometimes not so subtle ways. In her “Life Cycle” series, the piece “Maturity”, is a necklace featuring small dollhouse-like objects. There is a baby carriage, wine bottle, car, home, and upon closer inspection, the artist’s IUD (a form of birth control). Increasingly, her necklaces became an art form where the body was the exhibition space and the content and materials controlled the conversation between herself and the viewer.

In 1988, her work was shown in the solo exhibition, “Natural Selection”, at The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History. Her work was described by the museum as “a provocative collection of works from an artist who has gone directly to nature as a source for raw material in an attempt to break down the barriers that keep us blind to nature’s raw beauty.” “Her work-particularly the organic jewelry- is devoted to “the transformation of familiar objects” into the unexpected. Many of the pieces have a totem potency, communicating the feeling of primitive prayer sticks, fetishes or ritual objects. Brown’s ideas surface in a variety of ways. Although she works on occasion from a “concept (that) will come into my mind,” she also finds that “the chance juxtaposition as objects” generates ideas for specific forms or functions. Finally, she added, there are times when “an object is so powerful” that it seems to carry the idea with it impressing itself and its use on her imagination”.

In the 1980’s Anne Brown’s delicate and intimate “sculpture to wear” became a stepping off point for larger sculptures and assemblage made of found and repurposed material, which in the last two decades have taken her focus. In 2017, she began working with driftwood, which she selects from New England beaches, believing that she is the channel for what each piece has to say, often spending years defining its subtle presentation.

Throughout her career, from the 1970’s through today, Brown has exhibited nationally in numerous galleries, institutions, and museums, including most recently Rose Burlingham Projects, NYC, and Art Sales & Research, NY where her work is currently represented.