Image: Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego has published a profile of Manuelita Brown, a San Diego-based figurative sculptor whose work centers on public sculpture. The piece is part of ‘Giants of San Diego: To be a giant,’ a series the museum says builds from the exhibition philosophy that “all artists are giants” and extends that idea through interviews with five local artists. Brown is presented as the artist behind several well-known public sculptures in the region, including ‘UCSD Triton’ (2008), ‘Justice Thurgood Marshall’ (1993) and ‘Sojourner Truth’ (2015), all located throughout UC San Diego’s campus.
The profile places Brown within MCASD’s broader ‘Giants’ project, which connects local creative practice to ‘Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys.’ The exhibition opened at MCASD on April 18 and runs through August 9, 2026. According to the museum’s exhibition page, it includes more than 130 works of art and marks the inaugural display of the collection on the West Coast. Organized by the Brooklyn Museum in 2024, the exhibition features 37 Black American and diasporic artists from Africa, Europe, the United States and the Caribbean, with work across painting, photography, sculpture and installation.
Brown’s interview focuses on the path that led her to sculpting full time at age 57. MCASD notes that she had taught mathematics and taken art classes, including two sculpting classes at Mesa College, before making that shift. The profile also links her sculptural outlook to her background in mathematics and what the museum describes as a “technical, quasi-engineering thinking pattern.” Brown says that she is drawn to sculpting because of its tactile nature and its focus on form and shadow.
The museum describes Brown’s home as a space that feels “almost” like a gallery, filled with smaller sculptures and other artworks she has collected over the years, with a studio attached to the house. MCASD says she was “very involved” in building her home, which Brown considers an extension of “all-sculpting.” The profile also states that she is currently a full-time caregiver for her husband, Dr. Willie Brown, Emeritus Professor at UC San Diego.
Brown’s public commissions are highlighted as central to her practice. MCASD says she enjoys working with contractors, engineers, committees and crews, an aspect that draws her to public sculpture. In the interview, she describes wanting her sculptures to communicate the essence of a person through a still moment. She also notes that her subjects are not Caucasian, but she believes people outside her own ethnic identity can still relate to them, framing that as an objective of “universal acceptance” in her work.
The profile is one of five entries in the museum’s current local artist series. Other featured San Diego-based artists in this installment are Maxx Moses, Christopher Lloyd Tucker, Misty Hawkins and Stephen Williams. MCASD says the final part of ‘Giants of San Diego’ will ask the artists about their hopes for the city. The museum’s exhibition page also lists a closing celebration for ‘Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys’ on Friday, August 7, with music, a lowrider showcase and a conversation featuring curator Mashonda Tifrere and Lisane Basquiat.
