Alfred Conteh Biography

Biography

Alfred Conteh (b. 1975, Warner Robins, Georgia) is a classically trained artist, who has practiced his craft for more than 20 years. After earning a Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts from Hampton University, Conteh continued his formal education at Georgia Southern University; earning a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts.

As an African American artist, Conteh sheds light on the current realities of African American people; by bringing their stories and experiences to the forefront. Conteh’s creative techniques range from paintings to drawings and sculptures to assemblage works. His artwork can be found in public and private collections throughout the world.

In 2018, Conteh was commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) to create a portrait of film director, producer, and screenwriter Ryan Coogler.

The portrait titled Home Team is featured in the traveling exhibit Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth. The exhibit pays tribute to African American changemakers for their outstanding legacy and contributions.

Conteh’s work in the permanent collections of the Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR; Bajeel Art Foundation, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN; Museum of Arts and Sciences Permanent Collection, Macon, GA; Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art, Ashbury, NJ; Tubman Museum Permanent Collection, Macon, GA; Georgia Southern University Permanent Collection, Statesboro, GA; Georgia Southwestern University Permanent Collection, Swainsboro, GA; Hammonds House Museum Permanent Collection, Atlanta, GA; United Talent Agency, Beverly Hills, CA; and United Way Corporate Collection, Atlanta, GA

image courtesy of terrellclark.com

Delita Martin Artwork

Delita Martin

artwork | video | statement | bio | resume


Alfred Conteh

As an African American artist, Alfred Conteh sheds light on the current realities of African American people; by bringing their stories and experiences to the forefront. Conteh’s creative techniques range from paintings to drawings and sculptures to assemblage works. His artwork can be found in public and private collections throughout the world.

artwork
“Elijah (The Boxer, The Bouncer)”
60 x 60 x 2.5 ″
Acrylic and Atomized Bronze Dust on Canvas

Alfred Conteh Artist Statement

Statement

The paintings in this series are visual explorations of how African diasporal societies in the South are fighting social, economic, educational and psychological wars from within and without to survive. The honest and false narratives of history embodied in this series are primarily personified in patinated colossuses that symbolize the culture and realities of the populations they tower over, and the battles we’ve fought and continue to fight. We are at war on two fronts.

The extensions of the “Two Fronts” series are comprised of portraits that investigate the catalytic war that atmospheric conditions constantly wage on natural and manmade surfaces and structures. I’m using metal powders, chemical compounds, acrylic and dry media on paper and canvas to recreate those aging and weathering effects on the faces of people, which are reminiscent of the erosive conditions that patina the lives of black people every day, everywhere.

The camoflauge is emblematic of how america has systematically conditioned African americans to accept and blend into an environment that’s hostile and harmful to our people. Despite our intimate knowledge of the conditions that beleaguer the vast majority of black people, many of us knowingly opt to “hide in plain sight” for fear of being recognized as “anti-status quo” and getting punished by the same systems that oppress us.

artwork: Chrishelle, 2017, Acrylic, charcoal and atomized steel dust on paper, 30″h x 22″w

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Tawny Chatmon

For those who encounter my work, I want them to stop, I want them to pay attention, I want them to not be able to look away
-Tawny Chatmon

Through the lens of photography and the layering of mixed media materials, artist Tawny Chatmon has captured the regality of Black youth. Inspired by the aesthetics of Austrian painter Gustav Klimt’s Golden Phase, Chatmon’s subjects are often depicted in period dresses and then layered with a mixed media of gold leaf, acrylic paint, and detailed with precious and semi-precious jewels. To add a spiritual presence to her subjects, Chatmon employs the Byzantine art aesthetic of elongating their bodies and dress. Consequently, these figures overwhelm the space. Adding emphasis are the grandeur and versatile styles and textures of natural black hair that serve as a celebration of Black beauty. Yet, there is also a stillness of these figures that echoes what Kevin Quashie (2012) describes as “the sovereignty of quiet” in which quiet “is a metaphor for the full range of one’s inner life—one’s desires, ambitions, hunger, vulnerabilities [and] fears.” … Chatmon’s work primarily focuses on creating a safe and healing space for Black childhood in western society, which is feared and often indistinguishable from Black adulthood.

Excerpt from the essay “What I Want You to Know: Chatmon’s Visual Love Letter to Black Children” By Tanisha M. Jackson, Ph.D.

It Was Never Your Burden To…, 2020
24k gold leaf, acrylic, watercolor on archival pigment print
52 x 36″

Tawny Chatmon Artwork

Tawny Chatmon

artwork | statement | bio | resume | video

Tawny Chatmon Biography

Biography


Tawny Chatmon (b. 1979, Tokyo, Japan) is a photography-based artist residing in Maryland. In 2010, the then commercial photographer’s outlook and relationship with her camera shifted when she began photographing her father’s battle with cancer, consequently documenting the disease unexpectedly taking his life. With her father’s passing, she gradually began to look to her camera less as a device for monetary gain and more as a way for her work to serve a higher vocation.

While the camera remains her primary tool of communication, the self-taught artist takes a multi-layered approach in her process. She does not restrict herself to following any set of rules and does not subscribe exclusively to traditional photography practices. Her photographs are often digitally intensified by exaggerating the hairstyles of her subjects (who are often her children and other family members), lending them the eyes of someone older and wiser, and elongating their form, drawing inspiration from the Byzantine period to signify importance. Thereafter, she typically combines overlappings of digital collage and illustration. After refining and printing, she frequently experiments with various art practices by hand-embellishing with acrylic paint, 24-karat gold leaf, and materials such as paper, semi-precious stones, glass, and other mixed media. In choosing to frame the achieved iconography in golden antique, repurposed, and contemporary baroque frames, the artist composes a touching counter-narrative that is more than just a photograph but a new, meaningful compositional expression.

Chatmon suggests that our life experiences and memories are largely responsible for who one ultimately becomes and that “what we are exposed to, what we are taught, and even the toys we play with as children” contributes immensely to shaping us into adulthood. A Black woman and mother of three Black children, she is motivated by “leaving something important behind” to the world her children will grow up in while creating imagery that celebrates and honors the beauty of Black childhood and familial bonds while at times addressing the absence and exclusion of the Black body in Western art.

Chatmon is among the eight African American artists featured in the 2022 Venice Biennale exhibition The Afro-Futurist Manifesto: Blackness Reimagined, curated by Myrtis Bedolla of Galerie Myrtis. The exhibit explores the theme of Black life on the continuum of its imagined future presented in the Personal Structures art fair.

Photographer: Melody F. Dixon

Tawny Chatmon Statement


Statement

It is my belief that our memories and experiences are directly responsible for who we become. What we are exposed to, what we read, the toys we play with as children, what we view… I attribute this thought to my desire to make sure I’m sending a clear message (with my work) and that the message I am sending is “saying something” important; because if I believe we are shaped by our memories, as an artist, I must also believe that I too play a small part in shaping and shifting the views of anyone who comes in contact with my work. I did not always think this way but once realized, the thought never left me.
​
The primary theme that drives my art practice today is celebrating the beauty of black childhood. I am currently devoted to creating portraits that are inspired by artworks spanning various periods in Western Art with the intent of bringing to the forefront faces that were often under-celebrated in this style of work.
​
My camera remains my primary tool of communication, while my constant exploration of diverse ways of expression moves me to add several different layers using a variety of mediums. After a portrait session is complete, I typically digitally manipulate my subjects and unite them with other components to achieve a work that is a new expression. Often lending to them the eyes of someone their elder and more wise and almost always exaggerating and/or emphasizing their hair and features in a celebratory way. Thereafter, I may superimpose antique patterns and textures, collage vintage botanical and wildlife illustrations, or add hand-drawn digital illustration. If I feel I am not yet complete, after each portrait is refined and printed, I may combine paint and gold leaf adding ornamental elements.. By experimenting with various art practices, I allow myself to follow no set of rules while creating instinctually and fluidly. Each layer serves it’s very own meaningful purpose.
​
It is my hope that with each theme I explore and with each portrait I create, something vital is etched into the memory of the viewer.
​
-Tawny Chatmon

The Redemption: Castles
Photography, Photo- Manipulation, 24k gold leaf, Acrylic paint
34.5″ x 42″ Framed
2018/2019

Galerie Myrtis
2224 North Charles St
Baltimore, MD, 21218 | 410-235-3711
Tuesday & Wednesday by appointment
Thursday - Saturday, 2:00 - 6:00 PM
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