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Planetary Scientist | Son of Bruce Brown | U.S. Army Veteran Below is a conversation between curator Avery Brown Renfro and Jason Brown, reflecting on his father, Bruce Brown exploring memory, identity, service, and legacy. Eight reflections. 1. Q: What was it like growing up knowing your father, both as a man and as an artist? A: I never saw anything that he couldn’t do. Growing up with him was like watching a modern day Renaissance man. I remember sitting in his paint room

Plate #15 Upper & Lower Egypt Leon Renfro, 1976 A visual meditation on balance, division, and unity. In Upper & Lower Egypt, Renfro explores duality through form, color, and space. Horizontal bands divide the composition, echoing the historical separation of regions, while the figures move within and across these boundaries, suggesting connection, labor, and continuity. Influenced by traditional African art and modernist structure, this work does not simply represent place. I

She went looking for her grandfather’s story and found something history never fully held. After graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in African American Studies, a granddaughter returned to the archives and uncovered her grandfather’s thesis. She went looking for her grandfather’s story and found something history never fully held. After graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in African American Studies, a granddaughter retur

We’ve shown you the piece. Now let us show you the record. This work is not just something we found. It is documented. Preserved. Remembered. The story of Professor Leon Renfro lives not only in our family… but in the archives of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. CLICK HERE https://nmaahc.chnm.org/s/hcacdigitalarchive/item/9041 This is what it means to carry it on. Brown Renfro The Professor. The Student. The Curator. www.BrownRenfro.com We don’t j

Carry It On Voices We’re taking a moment to highlight the voices in this community, the ones engaging, encouraging, and helping us truly carry this on. Your words matter. Your reflections matter. And your connection to this story matters more than you know. This one is from Candy Anglin LeDoyen. Thank you for your thoughtful reflection and for taking the time to share it with us. We’re not just sharing art. We’re sharing legacy. And we’re grateful to be carrying it on with yo

She went looking for her grandfather’s story and found something history never fully held. After graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in African American Studies, a granddaughter returned to the archives and uncovered her grandfather’s thesis. That discovery became a bridge. The Professor. The Student. The Curator. Brown Renfro is more than an exhibition. It is a recovered archive, a living lineage, and a conversation across generations. Launching wi

AFFIRMative ACTION. Not a policy. A practice. A choice you make every single day. Affirm yourself. Affirm your lineage. Affirm your purpose. Carry it forward with intention. Brown Renfro The Professor. The Student. The Curator. www.BrownRenfro.com We don’t just hang the art. We carry it on. : Mike Nims

From student to curator from research to reality from VCU to everywhere this story is going next. Brown Renfro The Professor. The Student. The Curator. www.BrownRenfro.com We don’t just hang the art. We carry it on. Virginia Commonwealth University TrufacebyGrace

We don’t just hang the art. We carry it on. Legacy isn’t something you look at. It’s something you live. It’s something you carry. Brown Renfro The Professor. The Student. The Curator. www.BrownRenfro.com We don’t just hang the art. We carry it on. : Mike Nims 

Not everything needs to be explained. This does. AFFIRMative ACTION /əˈfərmədɪv akSHən/ noun 1. The intentional act of affirming oneself, one’s lineage, and one’s purpose. 2. Carrying legacy forward with intention. 3. Love expressed through deliberate movement. See also: Brown Renfro The Professor, The Student, The Curator. Affirming yourself. Affirming your lineage. Affirming your purpose. Not just worn. Lived. This is more than a sweatshirt. This is legacy carried forward o

We are incredibly grateful to the archives for sending this to us. Truly, thank you. This catalogue, Black Artists/South (1979), is now another important addition to the growing Brown Renfro archives and collection. Within these pages, Professor Leon Renfro is documented among a powerful group of artists, including Dr. John Biggers, Romare Bearden, and even George Washington Carver, placing his work within a broader cultural and historical conversation of Black artistry and e

Carry It On Voices We’re taking a moment to highlight the friends of this page, the ones engaging, encouraging, and helping us truly carry this on. Your words matter. Your reflections matter. And your connection to this story matters more than you know. This one is from Gwendolyn Denise Anderson, thank you for your thoughtful comment and for seeing the heart of what we’re building. It truly means everything to us. We’re not just sharing art. We’re sharing legacy. And we’re gr

This is not just our story. This is a community story. This is about every family. Some stories were never fully told. Some legacies were almost lost. Some histories are still waiting to be remembered. Brown Renfro is about more than art. It’s about connection. It’s about identity. It’s about making sure what came before us is not forgotten. Because every family has something worth preserving. Every story deserves to be carried forward. If this resonates with you, share it. T

Streams of Emotion Plate #10 By Professor Leon Renfro This scarf features artwork from the original thesis of Professor Leon Renfro, an artist and educator whose legacy continues to unfold across generations. Created using a nonobjective, emotionally driven technique, Streams of Emotion reflects a process that is intuitive, spontaneous, and deeply expressive. Layers of color were poured, formed, and revisited, resulting in a composition that is both unstructured and intention

Understanding the Art of Professor Leon Renfro Egyptian Bulls A surrealist work rooted in symbolism, with elements of Afrofuturism that reimagine African history and identity through form and imagination. These bulls are not meant to exist in real space or time. They are symbolic. In this work, Professor Leon Renfro draws from African and Egyptian traditions, where the bull represents power, creation, and sacred life. Across the African continent and throughout African Americ

I just found this photo of me at about 18 months old, standing in my grandmother’s house. Look closely at the top left corner. That painting hanging on the wall… is Egyptian Bulls. The same Egyptian Bulls by Professor Leon Renfro, my grandfather, that was later featured in the book Black Art: Ancestral Legacy…the same work connected to the Dallas Museum of Art exhibition of the same name…the same piece we uncovered again years later in the archives. And without even knowing i

This story was waiting. Press play. www.BrownRenfro.com We don’t just hang the art. We carry it on.

It’s here. The official Brown Renfro soundtrack and we’re bringing it to your ears. This is more than a song. This is legacy in motion. A limited number of albums will be pressed, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. Each album will include the official track and a remix, created to carry this story even further. This is the sound of Houston. This is the sound of NASA dreams. This is the sound of a grandfather, a student, and a granddaughter continuing what was started. Writt

This is my grandfather in the home where my father was raised. The walls behind him were not just decoration. They were filled with his work. Pieces he painted himself, framed himself, and chose to live with every day. Art was not separate from life. It was part of the home, part of the environment, part of what surrounded the family. In these images, you can see works like Voodoo Night, Trees of Life, Family No. 1 (featured in the Houston Art Education Association), Mr. Fog,