Mia Brownell is a New York- and Connecticut-based painter whose sci-fi still-life paintings reference both 17th-century Dutch realism and the swirling forms of molecular imaging. Working through the illusionistic conventions of traditional food painting, Brownell examines food as more than sustenance—considering how it is grown, processed, marketed, and consumed, and how it functions as a cultural signifier. Her work probes questions of identity, values, and the parallels between microbiology and the social constructs that shape who we are, positioning the global industrial food system as both subject and metaphor.
Brownell has received numerous awards and honors, including grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts (SOS), the New York State Council on the Arts (ArtsWestchester Artist Grant), and Connecticut State University Research Grants. She has participated in the U.S. Department of State’s “Art in Embassies” program and has completed public art commissions for the University of Connecticut Health Center and the City of Geneva, NY. Her residencies include the Millay Colony and the American Academy of Rome. Her solo exhibitions include Sloan Fine Art (New York, NY); J. Cacciola Gallery (New York, NY); Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art (Boston, MA); Metaphor Contemporary Art (Brooklyn, NY); Goodwin Fine Art (Denver, CO); Real Art Ways (Hartford, CT); Catskill Art Space (Livingston Manor, NY); and the National Academy of Sciences (Washington, DC). Museum and university solo presentations include Fulginiti Pavilion for Bioethics and Humanities (Denver, CO); Lemmerman Gallery (Jersey City, NJ); Hunterdon Art Museum (Clinton, NJ); Housatonic Museum of Art (Bridgeport, CT); Union Brown Gallery at Duke University (Durham, NC); and the Castellani Art Museum (Niagara Falls, NY). She was also featured in “UPRISE 2025: The Art of Resistance,” The Untitled Space’s landmark 10th Anniversary group show.
Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Addison Gallery of American Art (Andover, MA); Housatonic Museum of Art (Bridgeport, CT); Hunterdon Art Museum (Clinton, NJ); Mattatuck Museum (Waterbury, CT); the University of Connecticut (Farmington, CT); the National Academy of Sciences (Washington, DC); and major corporate collections including Fidelity Investments and Wellington Management (Boston, MA). Brownell’s work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, The Village Voice, Boston Globe, Artnet Magazine, and Hi-Fructose. She is a Professor of Art and Design at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, where she has taught painting and drawing for over 25 years.
