Betty Ann Brown is an art historian, critic, and curator. She has a Ph.D. in the History of Art and teaches at Cal State Northridge and Pasadena City College. Trained in Ancient Latin American art history, with focus on Aztec art, she now works with contemporary art as well.

Brown has curated several major exhibitions, including retrospectives for Hans Burkhardt, Roland Reiss, Linda Vallejo, June Wayne, and John White; and themed exhibitions addressing alternative families, community, and environmental issues. She is currently working on an exhibition of artist families for the Museum of Art & History in Lancaster, CA.

Brown has written dozens of critical essays, for Arts, Artscene, and Artweek; as well as numerous exhibition catalogues, for Don Bachardy, Rebecca Campbell, Merion Estes, Susan Feldman, Cheri Gaulke, Joanne Julian, Joan Kahn, Meg Madison, Eva Malhotra, and Kim Yasuda, among others. Brown’s books include Exposures, Women & Their Art (1989); Expanding Circles: Women, Art & Community (1996); Gradiva’s Mirror: Reflections on Women, Surrealism & Art History (2002); the online textbook Art & Mass Media (2005); Hero, Madman, Criminal, Victim: The Artist in Film & Fiction (2009); and Afternoons with June: Stories of June Wayne’s Art & Life (2012).

Brown was featured in four History Channel programs, did a series of discussions about art history for eHow online, and was recently interviewed on KPFK. She organizes of “Contemporary Art Conversations,” an ongoing series of panel discussions between critics and artists that convenes in various Southern California venues.