Artist Talk: Politics, Race, and Cartoons: Two Decades of Drawing My Own Conclusions, A solo exhibition by David G. Brown
The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) Watts Towers Arts Center Campus (WTACC) presents Politics, Race, and Cartoons: Two Decades of Drawing My Own Conclusions, a solo exhibition by David G. Brown. Experience visual forms of satire, political cartooning, underscoring its historical use as anti-racist dissent and introspective critique. Taking controversial topics in all their complexity, humor, and provocation, the exhibition raises important questions about the social power of art. Curated by Rosie Lee Hooks, Director of WTACC, the exhibition is on view through February 21, 2026, at the campus’s Noah Purifoy Gallery.
“David Brown keeps our storytelling traditions alive through visual satire,” says exhibition curator Rosie Lee Hooks. “Through storytelling, we can pass down our history, racial, and political wisdom. The experience of racism is an exile in itself. As we experience David’s living body of connected work, his quality of stilled laughter is mild and divisive at the same time, displaying the corrupt ways of racism and injustice throughout the world.”
David G. Brown is an NAACP award-winning artist, educator, and publisher. He is a nationally recognized political cartoonist who produces graphic novels and comic books with positive messages for others. Brown is a former Career Technical Education (CTE) instructor of Arts, Media, and Entertainment for the Los Angeles Unified School District and also taught Cartooning for the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).
He is currently the political cartoonist for the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper and a featured contributor to the Washington Post and San Francisco Bay View newspapers. In 2009, he was awarded a NAACP Image Award for his political humor book Barack, Race and the Media: Drawing my own Conclusions. The book is a collection of inspiring, yet humorous cartoons highlighting the historical Presidential campaign and election of Barack Obama the first African American President of the United States.
An exhibiting artist, his work has been shown in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. In 2009, the U.S. State Department and Brazilian Consulate sponsored a cultural exchange visit, selecting Brown to exhibit his political cartoons and comics in Brazil. His versatility as a commercial artist and designer has produced excellence in other areas, including photography, multimedia, and illustration through his promotional work for clients, including Los Angeles International World Airport, Automobile Club of Southern California. Warner Bros., City of Los Angeles, Wells Fargo Bank, California African American Museum, Getty Foundation, ABC-TV and others.
Admission to the exhibition is free. An artist talk will be held on Sunday, June 8, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. For more information, please visit the WTACC page at culture.lacity.gov/cultural-centers/watts-towers-campus for hours and information.