56 Henry is pleased to present a new body of work by LaKela Brown at EXPO Chicago 2026, as part of this year’s Focus section curated by Katie A. Pfohl, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, Detroit Institute of Arts.

This new body of work continues to develop Brown's anthropological approach to ethnobotany and the Black experience in America, using motifs crucial to her visual language: collard greens, tobacco leaves, pig's feet, corn cobs, and chicken wings. Brown pivots from the stark white plaster of her previous work for a profound, obsidian palette. By rendering these botanical traditions and heritages in deep black, Brown invokes the language of preservation and monumentality, suggesting that these plants are not ephemeral but artifacts of enduring cultural bedrock and American history. Her process of excavating, casting, and titling these forms mimics the meticulous efforts taken in anthropology and museology while her dynamic compositions and arrangements confront the history and intentions of still life painting. Brown will discuss her new work on Saturday, April 11th at 4:00pm as part of the EXPO Dialogues program. This conversation will bring together four artists–LaKela Brown, Faye HeavyShield, Demond Melancon, and Helena Metaferia, to reflect on the relationship between craft, ritual, and resistance as well as explore how each artist engages with cultural memory.

This presentation of work will precede two major institutional projects. Currently, Brown is at the Windgate Artist Residency Program at Kennesaw State University, preparing for her solo show at the Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art. She also has an upcoming solo show at the University of Michigan and will be included in the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit 20th anniversary group exhibition.

LaKela Brown (b.1982, Detroit, MI) received her BFA in 2005 from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. She lives and works in New York, NY. Select solo exhibitions include A Harvest., 56 HENRY New York, NY (2025); From Scratch: Seeding Adornment, Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, Detroit, MI (2024); Second Growth, 56 HENRY, New York, NY (2022); IMPRESSED, Reyes Finn, Detroit, MI (2021); LaKela Brown at Rockefeller Center, Art Production Fund, New York, NY (2019). Recent group shows include The Black Interior: Imagining Home in the Permanent Collection, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2025); Beneath Our Feet, Library Street Collective, Detroit, MI (2025); Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876–Now, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (2024). LaKela’s work is featured in collections of museums nationwide, including the Cranbrook Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The Mint Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, Smart Museum of Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, California African American Museum, Harvard Art Museums, and Wayne State University.