B I O

Iona Brown (b.1998)

Originally from the West Coast of Scotland and now residing on the East Coast, Brown is an emerging, interdisciplinary artist with a focus on sculpture. After graduating in 2021, Brown returned to continue her studies and practice at Duncan of Jordanstone, undertaking an MFA. Her installations portray spaces of beauty and brutality, uncertainty and vulnerability, which one may feel uncomfortable or enticed to witness.

Brown questions our human relationship of attractions and curiosities in nature, while maintaining reference to forms that refer to the human condition. Inspired through her connection with the practicalities and aesthetic pleasures of nature. Her practice involves high levels of collecting, organising, embedding and aesthetics. Memento Mori and the continuum of materials pose an essential element to her practice.

Through the mediums of bronze, taxidermy, flora, bird eggs, pearls, clay, metal, concrete and found objects, Brown explores and evolves her practice through displaying objects of unworldly desire, controlling this desire with a level of uncertainty and curiosity. Approaching various techniques of brutality with a conscious level of gentleness. Encapsulating fragments of nature in a space between comfort and fragility. Elucidating our internal balance in relation to desire and aesthetics, evoking both unease and awe. In forms which become questioning, educating, distasteful and alluring all at once.

Brown’s works have been selected by several successful artist bodies, including the Royal Scottish Academy, Visual Arts Scotland and the Society of Scottish Artists.