Exhibitions

Curator’s Choice: Select Works from Private Collections


Johnnie Lee Gray, The Revolution: Separate But Equal (detail) – Jim Crow Series, Acrylic on plywood, 20 5/8″H x 27 5/8″W

Curator’s Choice: Select Works from Private Collections
March 11 – April 23, 2017

Chosen by Myrtis Bedolla, Founding Director, Galerie Myrtis are selected works of cultural and historical significance offered from private collections. Featured Artists: Antonio Blackburn, Augustus Dunbier, Adolphus Ealey, Johnnie Lee Gray, Thomas Moran, Stephanie Pogue and Lucille Malkia Roberts.

Artwork

Exhibitions

Paradigms of Structure and Change: David Carlson

Other Side of Empty, 2016, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 60″ x 72″
Paradigms of Structure and Change: David Carlson
March 11 – April 23, 2017

Working with the unique qualities of painting, drawing, and video, David Carlson engages the poetics of geometry and design through the collision of gestural lines, rounded forms, and layered imagery. Spanning over several years, the bodies of work featured in Paradigms of Structure and Change are in conversation with one another as investigations into the importance of experience and reflection within the process of intuitive creation.    Khadija Adell, Curator

paintings | video | artist’s talk | david carlson
 

paintings

video


 

One year, one month, one week, one day, one hour, one minute.

Through the act of abstract painting I merge time and energy into compositions that reflect unknown circumstance. This is important. I begin with a simple group of thoughts or perimeters that initiate the overall concept. (platform.) Totemic force, unidentified object, nature, music, poetry, diverse cultural experiences through travel define the process. Mine is not to dissect and explain but to experience and reflect.
Each painting has it’s own duration and this perception is automatically built into it through the process of exploration. This is something I have been working and struggling with for many years.

In my studio I ask myself, “What is the nature of reality?” This is my constant thought while I paint. The tension between opposing paradigms of structure and change continually challenge me to look for different ways to understand this question. By using abstraction, my paintings have an undertone of geometry, I use the word poetically. The aesthetic includes a painterly approach, precision handling and an underlying sense of design through collision, tension and opposition.

On the surface, there are recognizable shapes, mostly circles, but also rounded forms and lines that create movement and structure in the space. The physical nature of circles become fixed in space between the more gestural lines and layers that create movement and a sense of time. The painting’s layered surface include heavy texture, scraped areas, fresh paint and milky veils, which allude to the formation or destruction of random sequence. Without having specific objects or trappings of identifiable ‘real’ images, the paintings cross over perceptible boundaries locked to a specific meaning. This allows me to look directly at diverse ideas in an intuitive manner. The act of painting becomes the experience or ‘reality’ for the basis of the work. By combining abstract painting with concepts rooted in Taoist and Buddhist philosophy I have been constructing contemporary works that directly express the ever-changing quality of experience, time, and place. Zen

David Carlson
Tea With Myrtis

Tea with Myrtis – Videos

Tea with Myrtis Videos

Tea with Myrtis is a series of art salons where we engage in lively conversations with artists, art collectors and the nation’s leading arts professionals to discuss trends in the contemporary art movement. We Share in delectable treats and enjoy delicious teas!

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Galerie Myrtis - Art of the Collectors VI
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Exploring the Life of Adolphus Ealey and the Barnett Aden Gallery
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Lest We Forget - Closing Ceremony
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Intersections Between Black Artists and Black Owned Businesses
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1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, 2013, London, UK
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The Contemporary - Galerie Myrtis & Shinique Smith
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Hillyer Art Space 2014
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Collecting 101 - Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery
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Art Basel Miami Beach, 2013
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Hassan Hajjaj - Gallery Visit, London, UK
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Hassan Hajjaj - Studio Visit, London, UK
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Dr. Diala Touré: Portrait of Louise Marie-Therese
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Joaneath Spicer: Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe
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Curator’s Talk: Myrtis Bedolla
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Lesley King Hammond, "ADORN" - Artists Lovers: Exploring the Muse
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Lesley King-Hammond & Jose Mapily - Artists Lovers: Exploring the Muse
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Michael Platt - Artist Lovers: Exploring the Muse
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How to Care for Your Art
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Sherry Bellamy-Bumbray: Finding Your Passion
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Sharon Burton: Finding Your Passion
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Patricia Walters: Finding Your Passion
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What Art Publications Do You Recommend?
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Managing Your Art Collection
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Private video
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Myrtis Bedolla: The Various Types of Art Collectors
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Dianne Whitfield-Locke: Finding Your Passion
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Darryl Atwell: Finding Your Passion
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Debra Ambush: Legacy of Delilah Pierce
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Joyce Scott Performance
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Charly Palmer: We Love Watermelon
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Charly Palmer: Tar Baby (Cornel West)
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Art Basel 2009
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Print Making Demonstration: Silkscreen
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Print Making Demonstration: Monotype
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Print Making Demonstration: Copper Plate
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Print Making Demonstration: Block Print
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Art Basel Miami Beach, 2010
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Art Basel Miami Beach, 2009
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Consumption: Food as Paradox - Artists Cake Design
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Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary: Post Traumatic Slave Disorder
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Artist Talk

Take Me Away to the Stars – Artist Talk

Artist’s Talk with Stephen Towns: Take Me Away to the Stars: The Mystery, Magic, and Myth of Nat Turner

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Take Me Away to the Stars - Stephen Towns
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Artist’s Talk: Myrtis Bedolla and Artist, Stephen Towns discuss his current exhibition, Take Me Away to The Stars: The Mystery, Magic, and Myth of Nat Turner. Using the historical and mythological chronicles of Nat Turner’s slave revolt, Towns explores the moral legitimacy and political efficacy of violent protest by blacks in their fight for freedom and equality. view the exhibition

Tea with Myrtis: Artist Stephen Towns and film critic Tim Gordon engage in a lively discussion about the exhibition and the timely cinematic prospective from the 2016 film The Birth of a Nation. Myrtis Bedolla will served as moderator.


About the Tea with Myrtis Panel

Stephen Towns

Stephen Towns
Currently, based out of the gritty, metropolis of Baltimore, Maryland, Mixed-Media Artist and Muralist, Stephen Towns was born in the Deep South (Charleston, South Carolina). Towns primarily works in oil and acrylic drawing much of his visual inspiration from Medieval altarpieces, Impressionist paintings and wax cloth prints. His work has been exhibited at Gallery CA, Platform Gallery, Hood College and is in the collection of the City of Charleston, South Carolina. Most recently, Towns was honored as the inaugural recipient of the 2016 Municipal Art Society of Balti- more, Travel Prize and received the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance Rubys Artist Grant in 2015.

Tim Gordon

Tim Gordon
Film Critic, Association President, Historian, Podcaster, Award Show Founder, Adjunct Professor, Executive Director, Brand Creator, and lover of ALL things film, Tim Gordon remains a cinema innovator.

Gordon has turned his passion for film into his life’s work, seeking to educate future generations and alter the perspective of African-American portrayals on the screen and in the executive suites of Hollywood.

He began his career as a film historian studying early African-Americans in early Hollywood and its impact on current trends. In 1992, Gordon created Third Renaissance to bridge the gap between Hollywood and the African-African community. He published the company’s newsletter, The Renaissance Review, which was distributed nationally.

In 2000, Gordon created The Black Reel Reel Awards, honoring African-Americans in feature, independent and television films, as well as the online site, Reel Images Magazine, which covered the entertainment industry.

Gordon created the movie brand, “FilmGordon” in 2008, consolidating his film content and social media platforms under one umbrella.

His work has appeared in the USA Today, Variety Magazine’s prestigious Bureau of Film Critics, and has been a guest on NewsOne with Roland Martin, BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley and BET’s Screen Scene and Howard University’s Evening Exchange (WHUT-TV).

Myrtis Bedolla

Myrtis Bedolla
Myrtis Bedolla is founding director of Galerie Myrtis, a contemporary fine art gallery and art advisory located in Baltimore, Maryland. She was featured in the October 2013 issue of the Baltimore Style Magazine article “Women in the Arts” which honored women at the helm of the Baltimore art scene.

As a writer, Bedolla has contributed to The International Review of African American Art and Valentine Magazine; online newsletters: ARTINFO and IRAAA (International Review of African American Art). And she has written numerous exhibition essays.

In 2015, Bedolla curated two seminal museum exhibitions, “Shadow Matter: The Rhythm of Structure / Afro Futurism to Afro Surrealism” featuring the work of sculptor M. Scott Johnson held at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African America Art in Detroit, Michigan, and “Michael Gross: Abstraction” featuring painter and printmaker Michael Gross presented at American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, D.C.

Appointed board memberships include: the Association of African American Museums, Washington, D.C.; Art Advisory Board, University of Maryland University College, College Park Maryland; Robert Deutsch Foundation, Baltimore, Maryland; Board of Directors for the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, Washington, D.C.; and Executive Board for the Station North Arts and Entertainment District, Baltimore, Maryland.

Bedolla is a member of ArtTable: a national organization for professional women in the visual arts. And sits on the Practicum Advisory Committee for the Masters in Curatorial Studies for Maryland Institute College of Art; Audience Committee for the Walters Art Museum; Leadership Council Committee for the Open Society Institute of Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland; Scholarship Committee for the Congressional Black Caucus, Washington, D.C. and is a past Grant Panelist for the District of Columbia Commission for the Arts and Humanities.

Photograph courtesy Stephen Spartana
photography.spartana.com

Resale

Malkia Roberts Secondary Market

Secondary Market

Malkia Roberts (1917-2004)

MALKIA (Swahili, “queen”) – “As a black artist and a black teacher, I have been gripped by the threads of an elemental and pervasive spirituality in the art of the so-called “Third World”. As a black woman, I feel strongly about my painting as a thread in that tapestry. I see it as an instrument of nourishment and strength for black people. Not political propaganda, not “anti-art”, but a source of positive imagery to negate subtle distorted stereotypes of the past, and to undergird our growing sense of identity, pride and direction.” Malkia Roberts, 1971 read more about Malkia Roberts

Artwork for Sale

Resale

Elizabeth Catlett Secondary Market

Secondary Market

Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012)

bio | video
 
Elizabeth Catlett is best known for her work during the 1960s and 70s, when she created politically charged, black expressionistic sculptures and prints. Catlett, a sculptor and graphic artist, was born in Washington, D.C. in 1919. She attended Howard University where she studied design, printmaking and drawing. read full biography

Artwork for Sale

Resale

Elizabeth Catlett Children with Flowers

Resale Market

 

Children with Flowers

Artist: Elizabeth Catlett
Medium: Lithograph
Dimensions: 30″ x 37″ framed
Year: 1995
Condition: Excellent
Provenance: Kansas African American Museum
Price: contact gallery



































Available Resale Artwork

Resale

Elizabeth Catlett The Family

Resale Market

The Family by Elizabeth Catlett

Medium: Bronze on Wood
Dimensions: 15″
Year: 2002
Condition: Excellent
Provenance: Kansas African American Museum
Price: contact gallery




Available Resale Artwork

Exhibitions

Take Me Away to the Stars


Shall It Declare Thy Truth? (detail), 2016

Take Me Away to the Stars: The Mystery, Magic, and Myth of Nat Turner

November 5, 2016 – February 18, 2017

artwork | artist’s talk | artist statement | curatorial statement

Take Me Away to the Stars, explores how violence is processed through escapism, religion and myth. Using the historic and mythological chronicles of Nat Turner’s historic slave rebellion, Stephen Towns constructs a contemporary story through drawings, paintings and quilts. read artist statement

Artwork

Artist Statement

Stephen Towns
Take Me Away to the Stars, explores how we process violence through escapism, religion and myth. Using the historic and mythological chronicles of Nat Turner’s rebellion, my visual narrative probes the effects this singular event had in solidifying the fear of Black Americans and the development of the “sub-human” black man ideology, yet the reality is black Americans are systematically shackled to a violent nation which half-heartedly embraces our bodies, minds and souls while reaping the benefits of our pain.

‘The Confessions of Nat Turner,’ scholarly articles on coping mechanisms and a visit to the Turner Rebellion sites, are the thesis for Take Me Away to the Stars. This research is the foundation to construct a contemporary story using patterns, shape, celestial imagery and quilting unfolding this very violent story through non-violent imagery without “escape” from reality.


Take Me Away to the Stars is a complement to my co-patriot series. Stars provides me an avenue to process all I have learned about the violence of American history and may possibly provide a framework on how to navigate and articulate the current anger and frustration that exists within Baltimore today following the Uprising of 2015 and indeed throughout the nation and the world.

Curatorial Statement

On the eve of August 21, 1831, Nat Turner led a rebellion against slavery in South Hampton County, Virginia. He was joined by a band of 70 armed slaves and freed blacks who traveled to an estimated 15 farms and bludgeoned every white man, woman, and child to be found. By the end of the 24-hour insurrection, 55-65 whites had been murdered. Out of retaliation for the attack, Turner and 21 of his conspirators were executed by hanging, others were transported from the region, and an estimated 200 innocent blacks were summarily killed.

Turner’s bloody revolt sent shock waves throughout the antebellum south. He was vilified by slaveholders who believed his act to be reprehensible; while being raised to apotheosis status by abolitionists in the north for sacrificing his life to end slavery.

Whether villain or hero, the question remains—given the cult of violence that existed during slavery was Turner justified in taking up arms against his oppressors?

In, Take Me Away to the Stars: The Mystery, Magic, and Myth of Nat Turner Stephen Towns explores the moral legitimacy and political efficacy of violent protest by blacks in their fight for freedom and equality. Turner’s life is the lens through which Towns examines how violence is processed through escapism and myth while investigating the role religion has played in the subjugation and liberation of black people.

Historical and mythological narratives and Towns’ imagination are the inspirations for paintings and quilts that take us on a visual journey from Turner’s childhood to the day of his execution. Towns masterfully constructs his commentary on violence employing a non-violent iconography where butterflies, celestial skies, halos, and magic acts, are metaphors for resilience, spirituality, perseverance, and escapism.

I will Fear No Evil

The story unfolds with Find Me a Constellation, a series of delicately painted portraits of enslaved children, offered by Towns as a tender reminder of those born as chattel. As a child, Turner impressed family and friends with an unusual sense of divine purpose. Town’s portrait, I will Fear No Evil imagines Turner as a small boy; the title, a reference to his deep religious convictions.






Black Sun

The Story Quilts chronicle Turner’s evolution from “special” child to the man driven by prophetic visions to lead the insurrection. Towns’ narrative quilts depict the enigmatic Turner under luminous night skies as he evolves from gifted child—to charismatic preacher—to the infamous leader of the slave revolt.






No Remembrance of Things
to Come

In the Black Magic series, magic is the metaphor for religion and survival. Towns’ paintings depict Turner and his wife, Cherry as magicians who deploy sorcery to escape the harsh realities of their existence. They are fueled by the quest for freedom and imbued with the power of God, as they find sanctuary in a world of illusions.






Shall It Declare Thy Truth?

Joy Cometh in the Morning is Towns’ homage to Turner and his combatants, who in the facing their execution, remain defiant. Paintings of the insurgents evoke intense emotions. Their penetrating gazes and clinched fists convey a resolute determination to live freely or dead by their own hands.






Birth of a Nation

In Birth of a Nation, Towns takes a departure from the Turner story to address the role of black women as “wet nurses” during the antebellum and post-antebellum period. A 13 star Revolutionary Flag meticulously hand stitched by Towns hangs above a soil, just inches from desecration. The flag serves as the backdrop for the archetype mammie figure with white baby suckling at her breast. Towns reveals the contradiction in men who hold the flag sacred while defiling and violating the black woman’s body.



Myrtis Bedolla, Curator

Reference: French, Scott. The Rebellious Slave: Nat Turner in American Memory. New York, NY. Houghton Mifflin Company. 2004

Art Basel

Spectrum Art Fair 2016

spectrum-300x300


In association with Miami Art Week and Art Basel, Galerie Myrtis participated in the Spectrum Miami Art Show. Spectrum Miami is a juried, contemporary art show taking place in Miami’s Arts and Entertainment District.
Featured artists: Anna U. Davis, Morel Doucet, Michael Gross, Ronald Jackson, Delita Martin and Jamea Richmond-Edwards.

Galerie Myrtis at Spectrum Miami - Booth S900
Galerie Myrtis at Spectrum Miami – Booth S900

Artists


 

Spectrum Art Fair 2016