Peter Brown has photographed the open landscape and small towns of the High Plains for the past thirty years. He lives in Houston with his wife Jill Fryar. He often collaborates with writers and is the author of Seasons of Light, with Denise Levertov, On The Plains, with Kathleen Norris, West of Last Chance with Kent Haruf, Habiter L’Ouest with John Brinckerhoff Jackson and Hometown Texas, with Joe Holley. An English language version of Habiter L’Ouest, (To Live in the West) will be published in 2019.
His work has been collected by and exhibited in a variety of museums including the Menil Collection in Houston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Getty Museum, The Amon Carter Museum, the Stanford Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art among others.
He has been the recipient of an Individual Artist's Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award, the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize, the Imogen Cunningham Award, and grants from the Graham Foundation and the Arts Alliance of Houston.
Brown’s photography and writing have appeared in many journals, including Harpers, DoubleTake, Life, PDN, The New Yorker, Aperture, American Photographer, Texas Monthly, 5280, The New York Times Magazine and SPOT.
He has a BA in English and an MFA in Art from Stanford University and has taught at both Stanford and at Rice where he now teaches at the Glasscock School. He was named Photographer/Educator of the year by Houston Center for Photography and was awarded the inaugural Glasscock School Teaching Prize. An art gallery at the Glasscock School was created and named in his honor in 2014.
He is a founding member of Houston Center for Photography, where he serves on the Advisory Council, and has served on the Art Board of FotoFest and the Hirsch Library Board at the MFAH. He is currently a member of the Advisory Board for the Glasscock School. November 3, 2008 was declared ”Peter Brown Day” by the mayor of Houston in recognition of his service to the arts.
Brown is represented by PDNB Gallery, Dallas; Stephen L. Clark Gallery, Austin; Rudolph Blume/Artscan Gallery, Houston and Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles.
CV
Education
Master of Fine Arts in Photography, Stanford University, 1977
Bachelor of Arts in English, Stanford University, 1971
Selected Honors, Grants & Awards
2018 Honoree, Houston Center for Photography Gala/Auction
2014 “Peter T. Brown Gallery”funded and created, Glasscock School, Rice University
2011 One of five Texas photographers selected to travel to China: University of Texas San Antonio/China Photographers Association.
2008 Houston Arts Alliance, Individual Artist’s Grant
2007 Glasscock School Teaching Prize, Rice University (first awarded)
2007 “Peter Brown Day,” City of Houston, declaration by Mayor Bill White, Nov. 3, 2007
2005 Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize, Duke University (with Kent Haruf)
2004 Photographer/Educator of the Year, Houston Center for Photography
2003 CS Foundation Grant, Texas Tech University
2000 Fred Whitehead Award, Texas Institute of Letters, (with Molly Renda)
1999 Alfred Eisenstaedt Award, Columbia University/LIFE Magazine
1997 Cultural Arts Council of Houston, Individual Artist's Grant
1996 Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Artist’s Grant
1990 National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Photographer's Fellowship
1988 Cultural Arts Council of Houston, Individual Artist’s Grant
1986-88 Rice University Cullinan Chair Commission to photograph the High Plains
1982-92 Rice University Research Grants to photograph the High Plains
1983 Imogen Cunningham Award, Imogen Cunningham Trust
1977 Carnegie Teaching Fellowship, Stanford University
1975 Mileo Prize, Boca Raton, Florida
Books & Portfolios
2018 Forthcoming: To Live in the West, with J.B. Jackson. Trinity University Press, San Antonio
2017 Hometown Texas, with Joe Holley, Trinity University Press, San Antonio
2016 Habiter L’Ouest, with John Brinckerhoff Jackson, WildProject Press, Marseille, France
2011 Llano Estacado: An Island in the Sky, Collaborative Photographic book, Texas Tech Press.
Ron Tyler Award, Texas Historical Society
2008 West of Last Chance. Photographic book. Text by Kent Haruf. W.W. Norton, New York
Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize
1999 On the Plains. Photographic book. Introduction by Kathleen Norris. W.W. Norton, New York.
Alfred Eisenstaedt Award & Fred Whitehead Award.
1988 Seasons of Light. Photographic book. Afterword and poems by Denise Levertov.
Rice University Press, Houston. Imogen Cunningham Award.
1982 Seasons of Light. Portfolio of dye transfer prints and accompanying texts.
Stanford University Art Department Press.
Other Selected Publications
The New Yorker, Harpers, Texas Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, Aperture, Photo District News, PhotoIcon, 5280, LIFE, Dwell, Milk, Duke Magazine, Stanford Magazine, SPOT, DoubleTake, House and Garden, Popular Photography, Landscape Architecture, FotoMetro, American Photographer, CITE, Image, Aura, Sequoia, The Stanford Review and others.
Selected Exhibitions
2018 Hometown Texas, PDNB Gallery, Dallas, TX*
2017 A History of Photography: Selections from the Museum’s Collection. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
2017 American Photographs 1845 to Now, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
2017 Plains Song, a Thirty Year Retrospective, Rudolph Blume/Artscan Gallery, Houston TX*
2016 Faculty Exhibition, Glasscock School, Rice University, Houston TX
2015 Faculty Exhibition, Glasscock School, Rice University, Houston TX
2015 West of Last Chance, Highland Community College, Highland, Kansas
2015 West of Last Chance, Mari Sandoz High Plains Center, Chadron, Nebraska
2014 West of Last Chance, Willa Cather Institute, Red Cloud, Nebraska*
2014 West of Last Chance, Public Library and Arts Center, Falls City, Nebraska
2013 West of Last Chance, McCook College, McCook, Nebraska*
2013 William Eggleston and His Circle and Beyond,PDNB Gallery, Dallas TX
2013 West of Last Chance, Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney, Nebraska*
2012 Descriptions of China, Institute of Texas Cultures, UTSA Gallery, San Antonio TX
2011 The Eyes of Texas, Peter Brown, Keith Carter, Earlie Hudnall, George Krause,PDNB Gallery, Dallas, TX
2011 Infinite Horizon, Lishui, China
2011 Situating Robert Adams, Colorado Center for the Photographic Arts, Denver, Colorado
2010 Hidden Treasures, PDNB Gallery, Dallas, TX
2010 Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
2009 John Cleary Memorial Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston TX
2009 American Landscape, Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2009 Texas Landscapes, Houston City Hall, Houston, TX
2009 Topiary, Text, Lead, Houston Arts Alliance, Gallery 125, Houston, TX
2008 West of Last Chance, Harris Gallery, Houston, TX*
2008 West of Last Chance, PDNB Gallery, Dallas, TX*
2008 West of Last Chance, Stephen Clark Gallery, Austin, TX*
2008 West of Last Chance, Sandy Carson Gallery, Denver, CO*
2008 West of Last Chance, Stephen Bulger Gallery,Toronto, ON*
2008 West of Last Chance, Highland Gallery, Marfa, TX*
2007 Houston Wilderness, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
2007 High Plains, Harris Gallery, Houston, TX*
2007 Llano Estacado, Island in the Sky, Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX
2005 Llano Estacado, Island in the Sky, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
2004 Picturing the Modern World, James Nicholson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2004 Extreme Houses, Lothringer Dreizehn, Munich, & Halle 14, Leipzig , Germany
2003 On The Plains,Texas Tech University, Art and Architecture Galleries, Lubbock, TX*
2003 Masterworks of American Photography, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX
2002 Safe Haven: Picturing Domestic Space, Camerawork, San Francisco, CA
2002 In The Orchard, Harris Gallery, FotoFest Exhibition, Houston, TX *
2002 Open Spaces, Texas Places, Museum of Natural Science, Houston, TX
2001 Itinerances, L’art Fix en Mouvement, Hotel de Divonne, Arles, France
2000 Crossing State Lines: Texas Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX
2000 Western Views, Transamerica Pyramid Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2000 On the Plains, Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles, CA*
2000 On the Plains, Stephen Clark Gallery, Austin, TX*
2000 On the Plains, Center for Documentary Studies, Durham, NC* *Solo exhibitions
2000 On the Plains, Galveston Art Center, Galveston, TX*
2000 On the Plains, Harris Gallery, Houston, TX*
2000 On the Plains, Kilgore College, Kilgore, TX*
2000 Martin Margulies Collection, Florida International University, Miami, FL
1998 Recipients, Diverse Works, Houston, TX
1998 Inside These Walls, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
1998 Altered Landscape, ArtScan Gallery, Houston, TX
1997 Lone Star: Reconsidering Texas, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX
1996 Great Plains, Harris Gallery, Houston, TX*
1996 Social Landscape, Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR.
1995 Great Plains, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR*
1994 Focus '94, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA
1996 Recent Acquisitions, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
1996 Light Fantastic, Laguna Gloria Museum, Austin, TX
1996 Great Plains, Harris Gallery, Houston, TX*
1993 Texas Focus, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
1993 Close to Home, Harris Gallery, Houston, TX*
1993 Seeing the Forest In the Trees, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX
1992 Our Town, Burden Gallery, Aperture Foundation, New York, NY
1991 The Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY;
1991 The Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD;
1991 The Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los
Angeles, CA
1991 The Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort, The Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH
1991 The Mundy Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
1990 High Plains/Plain Views, Farish Gallery, Rice University, Houston, TX*
1990 Houston Photographers, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
1989 Messages from the South, Sewall Gallery, Rice University, Houston, TX
1989 The Prehistoric in Contemporary Art, The New York State Museum, Albany, NY
1988 One Plus One, The Museum of Fine Arts, Glassell School, Houston, TX
1988 Visiones de Tejanos/Visions of Texans, Institute of Mexican Culture, San Antonio, TX
(exhibition travels through Mexico and Central America 1988-1990)
1987 Heath, Harris Gallery, Houston, TX*
1987 New American Talent, Laguna Gloria Museum, Austin, TX and subsequent travels
1986 Three From Houston, Harris Gallery, Houston, TX
1986 Ten Texas Photographers, The Abilene Museum of Fine Arts, Abilene, TX
1985 Peter Brown, Recent Work, Harris Gallery, Houston, TX*
1985 Seasons of Light, The Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, TX*
1985 Southwest '85, Santa Fe Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM
1985 Houston Photographers From The Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
1984 Peter Brown, George Krause, Geoff Winningham, Harris Gallery, Houston, TX
1984 Seasons of Light, Canon Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland*
1984 Seasons of Light, Alphaville Gallery, Piacenza, Italy*
1984 Photography, Smith-Anderson Gallery, Palo Alto, CA
1983 Seasons of Light, Focus Gallery, San Francisco, CA*
1983 Seasons of Light, Harris Gallery, Houston, TX*
1983 Seasons of Light, The Waco Art Center, Waco, TX*
1982 Michelangelo and the Bull, The Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA*
1982 Kunst Fra Houston i Norge/Art from Houston to Norway, Stavenger Museum of Art, Stavenger,
Norway and subsequent travels
1982 Contemporary Photography as Phantasy, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
and subsequent travels
1982 Peter Brown, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH* *Solo exhibitions
1982 Color from the Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
1982 New American Landscape, Mancini Gallery, Houston, TX
1981 Peter Brown, Smith-Andersen Gallery, Palo Alto, CA*
1980 Thanks to Leo Stanford University Art Gallery, Stanford, CA
1980 Peter Brown, Focus Gallery, San Francisco, CA*
1980 Emerging Texas Photographers, Laguna Gloria Museum, Austin, TX
1980 New Color Photography, Carson-Sapiro Gallery, Denver, CO
1979 Tony Cronin Memorial, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
1978 Peter Brown, Smith-Andersen Gallery, Palo Alto, CA*
1977 Painting and Photography: An Exhibition of MFA Work, Stanford University Art Gallery, CA
1976 American Photography, Andromeda Gallery, Buffalo, NY;
1976 American Photography, Miami-Dade College, Miami, FL and subsequent travels.
1976 Bicentennial Commission Exhibition of American Photography
Teaching
The Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, Rice University 1978 - present
The Glasscock School Teaching Prize 2007 (first awarded)
Rice University, Art Department 1978 - 1992
Stanford University Art Department 1975 – 1977
Various workshops, Houston Center for Photography and elsewhere
Community
Houston Center for Photography. Founding Member, Board, current Advisory Board
Houston FotoFest, past Art Board
Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, Rice University, Advisory Board
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Hirsch Library Board 2009-2012
Selected Collections
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX
The Menil Collection, Houston, TX
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
The Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
The Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, TX
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA
The Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney, NE
The Southwest Collection, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
The Stanford University Museum of Art, Stanford, CA
The Rice University Collection, Houston, TX
The Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE
The University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China
The Spencer Museum, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
The Center for Great Plains Studies Art Collection, University of Nebraska, NE
The University of Kentucky Museum of Art, Lexington, KY
The Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney, Nebraska
The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
The Davenport Art Museum, Davenport, IA
The Graham Center Museum, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL
The Louisville Photo Archives, Louisville, KY
The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH
The Snipe Museum, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN
The University of Houston Law Center, Houston, TX
The University of Texas, Austin, TX
The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio. TX
The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX
The Gernsheim Collection, The University of Texas, Austin, TX
The University of Oklahoma Museum of Art, Norman, OK
The San Francisco Foundation, San Francisco, CA
Dwell Collection, San Francisco, CA
The Piton Foundation, Boulder, CO
The Brown Foundation, Houston, TX
Nankai University, Nankai, China
The United States State Department
PaineWebber Collection, New York.
First National Bank, Boston, Massachusetts.
Fidelity Investments, Boston, Massachusetts.
A.G. Edwards, St. Louis, Missouri.
A.M. SouthBank, Birmingham, Alabama.
Sprint, Wichita, Kansas
Sterling Winthrop Collection, Collegeville, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia Project, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Fluor, Denver, Colorado.
Amoco, Denver, Colorado.
First National Bank, Denver, Colorado.
Q Up Systems, Austin, Texas.
Vinson and Elkins, Austin, Texas.
The Four Seasons, Austin, Texas
Graves, Dougherty, Hearon and Moody, Austin, Texas.
USSA, San Antonio, Texas.
First USA Bank, Dallas, Texas.
Sidley and Austin, Dallas, Texas.
The Houstonian, Houston, Texas.
Compaq, Houston, Texas.
Microsoft, Houston, Texas.
KPMG, Houston, Texas.
Duke Energy, Houston, Texas.
ERI, Houston, Texas.
Wilson Industries, Houston, Texas.
Texas Gas, Houston, Texas.
M Bank, Houston, Texas.
Interfirst Bank, Houston, Texas.
Latigo, Houston, Texas.
Vinson & Elkins, Houston, Texas.
Armogida & Coats, Houston, Texas.
Aikin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, Houston, Texas.
Engelhard & Polland, Houston, Texas.
Mayor, Caldwell, & Day, Houston, Texas.
Schlanger, Cook, Cohn, Mills, & Grossberg, Houston, Texas.
Thomson and Knight, Houston, Texas.
NCNB Bank, Houston, Texas
Interfin, Houston, Texas
Caddell and Conwell, Houston, Texas
Gallery Representation
PDNB Gallery, Dallas
Rudolph Blume/Artscan Gallery, Houston
Stephen L. Clark Gallery, Austin
Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles
Personal
Married: Jill Fryar, Clinical Social Worker, private practice. Past faculty member Baylor College of Medicine.
Daughter: Caitlin Fryar Brown, BA Stanford University. Berkeley Law JD. Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger, San Francisco (an environmental firm on the side of the environment…)
Dog: Mackie – Cairn Terrier.
4904 Mt. Vernon St.
Houston, TX 77006
peter@petertbrown.com
www.petertbrown.com (a “t” between the peter and the brown)