Todd T. Brown

Todd T. Brown is a visual artist, musician, and community arts organizer. He has been painting for 21 years. Over the past five years, Todd has dedicated himself to developing an interdisciplinary, intercultural, creative center for the visual and performing arts known as the Red Poppy Art House, located in the mission district of San Francisco. For the fall of 2008, the Art House was selected by the Yerba Buena Center of the Arts, as one of three Bay Area organizations, to do an on-site annex as part of Bay Area Now 2008 (BAN5). Todd was one of the three artists that collaborated to create "The Living Presence of Space", multi-installation for the BAN 5 RPAH Annex. In the spring of 2008, Todd was invited by the De Young Museum to do a month-long residency in June 2009, and for an interdisciplinary commissioned work, in collaboration with Meklit Hadero. In 2006, he was selected by the SF Weekly as a MasterMinds 2006 Honoree, for outstanding artists in the Bay Area. Todd is the founder of the Mission Arts & Performance Project (the MAPP), a bi-monthly Mission neighborhood arts happening that features from 50-100 visual artists, musicians, poets and performance artists, performing simultaneously in multiple locations.

Outside of his career as a visual artist and community arts organizer, Todd is the guitarist (electric/nylon) and principle composer for the international ensemble Nefasha Ayer, founded by Meklit Hadero and himself in 2006. Todd began his study of basic folk and blues guitar in 1986. His passion for music has led him to Spain, West Africa, Peru, Argentina and the Caribbean. He spent the mid 90's in a five-year study of the ceremonial folkloric music and dance of Cuba and Haiti. Nefasha Ayer represents both the collaborative debut of his particular unique sound and compositions within the group, as well as a culmination of the conceptual framework that as informed his life as an artist and community arts organizer.

This webbsite is predominantly for purposes of representing Todd's work in the visual arts. Works included on this website represent the scope of Todd’s visual work, spanning both the figurative and the abstract. While there is some information about Todd's work as an emerging composer and band leader, the bulk of the website's content is dedicated to his work in visual art.

For more information on Nefasha Ayer, please visit: www.nefashaayer.com

todd t. brown