Atlanta Artist Stephanie Brown at the National Gallery of Jamaica
Atlanta Artist Stephanie Brown Brings Boonoonoonous to the National Gallery of Jamaica Exhibit, “One Nation, New Symbols”
Artist Stephanie Brown will debut Boonoonoonous - a new interactive installation at the National Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ) as part of One Nation, New Symbols, opening September 28, 2025, in Kingston.
Brown, an Atlanta-based multidisciplinary artist and the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, creates immersive works that explore diaspora, memory, and resilience. Boonoonoonous acts as a portal between her mid-1990s South Florida living room and her grandfather’s yard in St. Ann, Jamaica. Two domestic spaces that shaped her identity and now collapse into one shared environment speaks to how diasporic identity is both fractured and whole, formed in the tension between “home” and “homeland.”
“It has been a lifelong dream to exhibit at NGJ. As a 1st generation American, this opportunity is full circle and affirms a sense of belonging to this island I call home but wasn't raised in,” says Brown. “One Nation New symbols provided a platform for me to explore my Jamaican identity from the perspective of the Diaspora. Boonoonoonous offers back symbols that reflect who we have always been and who we are still becoming.”
At the center of Boonoonoonous is a photograph of a breadfruit roasting on an open fire in St. Ann, fragmented across vertical blinds. Viewers are invited to open and close the blinds, revealing a mirrored surface behind them that reflects the audience back into the work. This act of passage transforms the installation into both mirror and threshold: a reminder that, like the ritual of roasting of breadfruit, each generation of Jamaicans survives fire and emerges more versatile, full, and brighter than before. The work is also layered with a recorded poem in Brown’s own voice, which honors the trials, triumphs, and contradictions of belonging to many places at once.
“Experiencing Boonoonoonoos feels like stepping into someone’s dream. This work transforms a personal perspective into a cultural consideration. It brings out a kind of subconscious truth that I think will really resonate with Jamaicans. Especially when it comes to understanding how we hold on to our culture and memories while living abroad, whether as migrants or through the eyes of our children born overseas. We’re honestly delighted to be part of Stephanie’s journey, not just as an artist, but as a Jamaican. Boonoonoonoos has become such a meaningful part of what One Nation, New Symbols is all about.” – Monique Barnett-Davidson Senior Curator, National Gallery Jamaica
“Brown’s installation is a powerful example of how Jamaican diasporic identity can be articulated in artistic form. As it balances with deep insight, material and aesthetic choices together in a way that generates specific, yet open discourses on the impact of geographic proximity, the emotional and cultural experience of distance as well as family assertion of island heritage on the self” – Dwayne Lyttle, Art Educator in Kingston, Jamaica
One Nation, New Symbols is NGJ’s major 2025 open call exhibition, featuring 46 artists and approximately 55 works that reinterpret Jamaica’s cultural signs and symbols in the context of national identity and social discourse. Brown’s installation will be on view through March 29, 2026.
Boonoonoonous by Stephanie Brown (2025)
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STEPHANIE BROWN
Stephanie Brown is an Atlanta based photographer and interactive installation artist. Her conceptual artwork explores how people of African descent construct their identities through social, cultural, and systematic confines. A daughter of Jamaican immigrants, Stephanie Brown grew up in South Florida at the intersection of her own Jamaican and Black American identities, which is reflected in her work offering ancestral and global insights on identity construction. Stephanie identifies as an interdisciplinary artist interweaving mediums to narrate a greater contextual story rooted in historical research and contributing contemporary perspectives that empower people of African descent to discover themselves and take control of who they choose to be and become.
THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF JAMAICA
The National Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ) located at 12 Ocean Boulevard, Downtown, Kingston is the largest and oldest public art museum in the English-speaking Caribbean. A division of the Institute of Jamaica (Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport), it currently operates from two locations in the capital city Kingston and Montego Bay. The custodian of Jamaica’s National Art Collection, its holdings boast a comprehensive aggregation of early, modern, and contemporary Jamaican works of art, as well as artwork produced by other Caribbean and international artists. Since its establishment, the museum has continually advanced its public offerings, which include active exhibition and engaging education programming, Gift and Coffee Shops, as well as Facilities Rental offerings. Its developments and success have reflected its mission: “To collect, research, document and preserve Jamaican, other related Caribbean art and related material to promote our artistic heritage for the benefit of future and present generations.”
MEDIA ACCESS
Members of the press may access video clips, audio samples, and high-resolution stills of Boonoonoonous at the following links:
Still images (credit: Courtesy of the Artist)
Audio (credit: Mixed by Courtland Liddell)
