Yrneh Gabon Brown is a Jamaican-born, Multi and inter-disciplinary, Mixed media and performance artist based in Los Angeles. Having graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) BFA with (Hons) and Otis College of Arts and Design, (MFA). Yrneh is a multi-disciplinary artist that seeks to balance and intersect artistic representation with social activism and social commentary, particularly regarding issues pertinent to Africa and people within its Diaspora. In 2014, after travels and research in Tanzania, Jamaica and across American, Gabon was given his first solo and major body of work at the California African American Museum CAAM entitled “Visibly Invisible”, Albinism in Tanzania, Jamaica, and the USA through his eyes.
“Visibly Invisible” Focused on the killings, the hunting and mistreatment of people born with Albinism, and brought attention to the plight of people living with Albinism particularly in East Africa and was instrumental in speaking at the United Nation, in New York advocating for the passing of the bill that protects people with Albinism around the world. His ongoing project is an Operetta on ecological Climate Change entitled “Memba Mi Tell Yu/Listen Up Take Note” bringing awareness to the nexus of ecological climate change dealing with fire and water. His current project phase 2 “Ditched the Salt” focus on salt consumption, sensitivity and its relationship and history with people of color.
Portrait by Robert Hale
In 2017, Gabon completed a summer residency at the Fundación Sebastián in Mexico City, Mexico. His work, entitled “Roots and Symbols,” explored the invisible people of African heritage in Mexico and the lack of equitable resources in communities of color in the black coastal Mexico. Gabon has held exhibitions in New York, California and internationally in Vancouver Canada, Dakar Senegal and Jamaica, West Indies. In December 2018, Gabon had the distinct honor and privilege to be one of the featured international artists at the Musée des Civilizations Noires inaugural exhibition in Dakar, Senegal.
Gabon was invited to exhibit in the Summer 2019 at the National Gallery and was a Guest Speaker at “Mi and Me Suitcase” Earl Warner Foundation, at the University of the West Indies (UWI) HQ fundraiser benefiting Scholarships for arts students, in Jamaica. A true artist in heart and soul, Gabon has been in the arts and entertainment for over 35 years and has worked as a poet, actor/singer, director, producer, playwright, special effects make-up artist and creative director. Gabon’s purpose and aim continues to use of all mediums of art as a tool for empowerment, social activism and social commentary regarding issues surrounding Africa and its Diaspora. His work continues to create new narratives and extend dialogue between Africa and its Diaspora, both in the first and the developing world. Gabon 2022 Dakar biennale selecting “Salt” was inspired by his travels to Lac Rose in Senegal and explores the intersection of salt as a commodity in Africa and the United States.
“It is my desire to use my Fine Arts Practice to re-educate and address the inequities within
underserved communities and reconstruct a narrative, that bridge us as a people facing social,
ecological, and political climate change in the future”. Yrneh Gabon is the 2023-2024, Arts and
Research Fulbright Fellow to Botswana, Southern Africa.”
— Yrneh Gabon