imageoftheblack

The Persistence of History, 2010 by S. Ross Browne
The Persistence of History, 2010 by S. Ross Browne

The Image of the Black: Reimagined & Redefined

September 13 – December 15, 2015

artwork | artist bios | press
 
The Image of the Black: Reimagined and Redefined black identity is reaffirmed through the black gaze. Artists draw from the familiar and the imagined to reinscribe the notion of blackness within the context of self. Their imagery deconstructs the white representation of race and racism, and shifts the visual paradigm to the interpretation of the black experience by blacks.

Visual tropes defy the sociohistorical construct of the “other” as inculcated through the white gaze that stereotypically degrades and dehumanizes blacks; and offers instead, an exploration of black body politics through figurative and conceptual works that challenge stereotypes, honor the black family, and as in the words of Arvie Smith, “pays homage to the dispossessed and marginalized members of our society.”

artwork

About the Exhibition

The Image of the Black: Reimagined and Redefined black identity is reaffirmed through the black gaze. Artists draw from the familiar and the imagined to reinscribe the notion of blackness within the context of self.

Their imagery deconstructs the white representation of race and racism, and shifts the visual paradigm to the interpretation of the black experience by blacks.

Visual tropes defy the sociohistorical construct of the “other” as inculcated through the white gaze that stereotypically degrades and dehumanizes blacks; and offers instead, an exploration of black body politics through figurative and conceptual works that challenge stereotypes, honor the black family, and as in the words of Arvie Smith, “pays homage to the dispossessed and marginalized members of our society.”

Michael Gross – Abstraction

Michael Gross: Abstraction I & II


Opening reception – American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC

Abstraction I
American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center
June 13 – July 26, 2015
Washington, DC

Abstraction II
July 8 – August 8, 2015
Gallery B
Bethesda, Maryland

About the Exhibition

Michael Gross, painter and printmaker, offers expressive and emotionally filled works using a kaleidoscope of color. Gross creates art as “a means of grappling with the impulses and struggles that make up the way I see my place in the world.” Through his visual lexicon,which is devoid of ideological reference, Gross seeks to create order from chaos. His lyrical compositions of concatenated lines, textured surfaces and rich hues, invoke Abstract Expressionism and pay homage to artists who inspire his work: Willem de Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn and Jackson Pollock. Curated by Myrtis Bedolla

Artwork

Michael Gross

Born in 1944 and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Gross showed artistic promise from a young age. His talents were influenced and nurtured by his artist mother, with whom he would travel to the Art Institute of Chicago where they took classes and his father, an advertising executive who took Gross to his office on weekends, where he would set him up at a drafting table with crayons and paper, allowing him to draw for hours. As a fledgling artist at the age of ten, Gross won an art competition and received a $500 savings bond.

Gross would go on to earn a Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law, becoming a corporate attorney, and in the 80s, a real estate developer. But art-making always remained an integral part of his life, as he continued to take classes at the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, DC and develop his techniques under the watchful eye of friend and mentor, artist William Christenberry.

Shadow Matter The Rhythm of Structure Afro Futurism to…

Shadow Matter: The Rhythm of Structure/ Afro-Futurism to Afro-Surrealism

January 19 – August 30, 2015

 

Curatorial Statementscott_johnson-techno-negro

by Myrtis Bedolla, Founding Director, Galerie Myrtis

Exhibition Location: Charles H. Wright Museum, Detroit, Michigan

Shadow Matter: The Rhythm of Structure/ Afro-Futurism to Afro-Surrealism features sculptures by New York sculptor M. Scott Johnson (Inkster, Michigan, 1968). In parallel with the aesthetic practices of both Afro-Futurism and Afro-Surrealism, Johnson transforms the ancient medium of stone into intricately carved sculptures that fuse African and African-American visual cultures. The work in this exhibition explores his journey in becoming one of the most unique sculptors of his generation.

This mid-career retrospective, traces the trajectory of Johnson’s multifaceted career. His works are rooted in Afro-Diasporan imagination and are inspired by folklore, mythology, revisionist history and his education as a student of Detroit’s techno/house

music universe. As an “artivist,” Scott unabashedly and unapologetically addresses self-perceived notions of classism and race, while harnessing his visual syntax to give voice to the disenfranchised. He has extended performance of sculpture into the social sphere by initiating and developing community-based collaborative public art throughout New York City.

Scott’s education as a sculptor began in 1994, in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe as a member of Operation Crossroads Africa. While there he studied traditional and contemporary stone sculpting under the tutelage of the local artists who occupied the endless alleyways of the city. At the time Zimbabwe was producing some of the most important stone sculptors in the contemporary art world. His greatest opportunity as a young artist came when he auditioned and was invited to apprentice (1996-1999) with master sculptor and national hero Nicholas Mukomberanwa (1940-2002) in Ruwa, Zimbabwe.

As an Afro-Futurist/Surrealist, Scott embraces the aesthetic mixture of fantasy, Afrocentricity, and magic realism with non-Western cosmologies to create new cultural landscapes and reshape old ones. Johnson believes his early embrace of Techno music was a point of departure into the scientific and spiritual practices of the African Diaspora. He also states that growing up in the close-knit community of Inkster provided him with an extremely supportive base of natural allies, willing to help expand his intellectual and artistic horizons.

Exhibition Location:
Charles H. Wright Museum
315 East Warren Avenue
Detroit, MI 48201
thewright.org

Emergence 2014

The Stairwell 2009, by Rosalind Kennedy, USA
The Stairwell 2009, by Rosalind Kennedy, USA

Emergence 2014: International Artists to Watch

September 14 – January 10, 2015

 
artwork | the artists | artists’ talk | the jurors | reception photos
 
The voice and vision of 60 artists from Burkina Faso, Canada, Finland, Ireland, Israel, Kenya, Korea, Lebanon, New Zealand, Singapore, United States and Zimbabwe, will be presented in the exhibition “Emergence 2014: International Artists to Watch.” Artworks and short films offer a global perspective on the cultural, political and societal concerns of contemporary artists.

Artwork

artists

Elaine Alibrandi, USA
Maya Freeelon Asante, USA
Gloria Askin, USA
Ronald Beverly, USA
Patrick Burns, USA
Nina Buxenbaum, USA
James Buxton, USA
David Carlson, USA
Wesley Clark, USA
Suzanne Coley, USA
Alyscia Cunningham, USA
Jessica C. Damen, USA
Anna U Davis, USA
Blanco de San Roman, Spain
Maria-Theresa Fernandes, Kenya
Ric Garcia, USA
Shaunte Gates, USA
Lorenzo Gattorna, USA
Jehanne-Marie Gavarini, USA
Atar Geva, Israel
Susan Goldman, USA
Karina Griffith, Canada
Michael Gross, USA
LaToya Hobbs, USA
Ronald Jackson, USA
Benjamin Jancewicz, USA
M. Scott Johnson, USA
Rosalind Kennedy, USA
Jeffrey Kent, USA
Kung Chee Keong, Singapore
Lauren Shea Little, USA
Robert Machiri, Zimbabwe
Florence Alfano McEwin, USA
Lin Rebolini McJunkin, USA
Edmond Nassa, Burkina Faso
Zahra Nazari, Iran
Joseph O’Neill, USA
Bart O’Reilly, Ireland
Ruth Pettus, New Zealand
Greg Pitts, USA
Steve Prince, USA
Terrence Reese, USA
Rotem Reshef, Israel
Jamea Richmond-Edwards, USA
Arvie Smith, USA
Lynda Smith-Bugge, USA
Casey Snyder, USA
Antar A. Spearmon, USA
Kara Bettie Speckhals, USA
Stan Squirewell, USA
Shahrzad Taavoni, Iran
Terry Tapp, USA
Maxine Taylor, USA
Rebecca Weed, USA
Stanley Wenocur, USA
Alison Wiklund, Finland
Morgan Willingham, USA
Sea Yoon, Korea
Helen Zughaib, Lebanon

Art of the Collectors IV

Voodoo (detail), 1977 by Alvin Hollingsworth

Art of the Collectors IV

June 29 – August 2, 2014

 
| watch curator’s talk |

Art of the Collectors IV features works from private collections created by prominent African and African American artists. Included in the exhibition are paintings and sculptures by artists who played an integral role in the Harlem Renaissance, as well as those whose works informed the landscape of American art.

Artwork


Featured Artists: Alexander (Skunder) Boghossian, Elizabeth Catlett, David Driskell, Palmer Hayden, Alvin C Hollingsworth, Joseph Holston, Jacob Lawrence, Joyce Lomax, Edward Love, Artis Lane, Thomas P. Miller, Frank Neal, Gene Pearson, Anderson Pigatt, Elizabeth T. Scott and more…

Printing Yellow

Flower Power V (detail) by Susan Goldman
Flower Power V (detail) by Susan Goldman

The World is Going to Hell and I am Printing Yellow!

April 6 – May 31, 2014

artists’ talk | about the artists

They seek refuge in the joy of art making; and offer the color yellow as a metaphor for exploring notions of self-preservation and empowerment as they make their imprint in ceramics, paintings and prints.

Artwork


Featured Artists: Susan Goldman, Sujata Gopalan, Anita Jung, Barbara Kerne, Bridget Sue Lambert, Kathryn Maxwell, Miriam Mörsel Nathan, Patricia Underwood, Eve Stockton and Judit Varga.

Printing Yellow About the Artists

Flower Power V (detail) by Susan Goldman
Flower Power V (detail) by Susan Goldman

The World is Going to Hell and I am Printing Yellow!

about the exhibition | artists’ talk

About the Artists

Susan Goldman

Suan Goldman
Power Flower V
My recent prints explore the sheer pleasure and sensuality of color and form. The circle, the target, the mandala, open fields of color filling the eyes and expanding breath down into the stomach, the center, the core have exploded out of the center of my obsession with the flower and vessel form.

I experience pure beauty and pleasure in their making. These simple, pure, and timeless images heal through their visceral and meditative qualities. I take respite from an unrelenting and aggressive environment in the creation of these highly saturated, colorful life size totems. Like an archer aiming for the bull’s eye, concentration and calm focus are required. The center is off center. It is not perfect, but we perceive it to be perfect. Seeing through our eye, the pupil, the target is always moving, but we keep trying to aim for the center, aiming for balance and perfection, an illusion to be in control. Throughout history the human need to create beauty and order out of chaos, has sustained and restored us through immeasurably challenging times. The world may be going to hell, but I am printing yellow and it feels great!

Sujata Gopalan

Sujata Gopalan
Red Party Dress
Historically, my work has taken a few divergent paths. I am interested in more than one genre or medium; I am trained in printmaking, attracted to painting, rely on drawing. I have become engrossed in the visual inspection of landscape, people and of the details of my own life. I have referenced trees, insects, shoes, pincushions, my mother and a gamut of other things which have some particular place in my universe. My work is diaristic. In a sense, I’m interested in the moment; I look at a place or a person or a thing at a specific moment in time. I expect the viewer to draw his or her own conclusions while I merely provide the inference.

My work is not political or angst-laden. I strive to make images that are honest and without subterfuge. Often, the concept succumbs to the process and the work becomes as much about the drawing or painting or printmaking, as the idea.

My last body of work addresses the concept of displacement, specifically the displacement of immigrants. Having emigrated to the United States at a young age, part of my own psyche is bounded by the experience of changing cultures. I examine the differences and similarities by inspecting the minutia, the objects of everyday life, in one culture versus another: an embroidered green dress to a sailor dress, a rag doll to Barbie. Collectively, these things represent the dichotomy of two different worlds, to each of which I belong. This body of work also speaks to our self-actualization as women; how we perceive ourselves; how our experiences and upbringing affect who we become.

Ultimately, there is a thread that connects all of the work together. My color and formal sensibilities, which draw upon my training as well as my cultural background, and my interest in creating a rich visual, if not tactile, surface, are reflected in the drawings, prints and paintings. I hope that my work remains truthful and continues to evolve even as I do.

Anita Jung

Anita Jung
Sari Sorry #1
Anita Jung is interested in aspects of the ephemeral, the overlooked, and unwanted. Her work is comprised of elements that have been discarded. Through repurposing these become visual metaphors for contemporary places and experiences.







Barbara Kerne

Barbara Kerne
The Moon
Tarot Cuts through the Woods

Nature’s resonance is cathartic for me, soothing, healing, and inspiring, so I image natural forms of connection with lyrical expression. In this series, Tarot Cuts through the Woods, the natural forms ebb and flow to conjure our futures, as oracles, as well as present equanimity that I always long for. While Ad Reinhardt, Jimmy Ernst, and Sidney Gross were important teachers for me, I have developed my own voice, female and naturalistic, abstract and realistic, in which I transcendentally soften the world’s hard-edged lines through interpretive painting and printmaking.



Bridget Sue Lambert

Is She Cool?
Is She Cool?
I spent my childhood rearranging the lives of the dolls that inhabited the dollhouse my grandfather built for me when I was five years old. Over the last 7 years, I used this dollhouse to construct—and photograph and print—scenes that simulate the emotional and physical clutter surrounding romantic relationships as well as a woman’s relationship with herself.

I explore the physical and psychological stages couples inhabit by photographing old dollhouses, miniature furniture and vintage dolls. I create large size pigment prints of ordinary intimate scenes and voyeuristic portraits and am interested in evoking the tensions, anxiety, and muddle that exist in these private spaces. The things we all strive to keep hidden behind closed doors. I manipulate the viewer’s sense of time and space and offer frozen tableaux that suggest a living narrative. Messy beds, knocked over drinks, bras and clothing flung on the floor hint at feelings of lust, desire, fear, love, faith, anticipation, and expectation. I distill personal experiences and draw on memories and images from both childhood and adulthood to engage in a contemporary discourse.

The ironic titles of my work are inspired by self-¬-help relationship books, instant message texts and the season finale of The Bachelor and allow me to make light of uncomfortable situations. Although I present constructed vignettes peppered with references to popular culture, I demonstrate the universality of human reactions and emotions.

Kathryn Maxwell

Hemisphere 2
Hemisphere 2
My interest in genetics and the broad connections among groups has translated into a new body of work that explores the grandest connection of all—the relation of humans to the universe. Carl Sagan wrote in Cosmos, “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” It seems we are connected to the universe through our very beings. We are all part of the whole and it is a part of us.





Miriam Mörsel Nathan

Miriam Mörsel
On this winter afternoon…
My work—
mostly fragments or traces of time and place.
Memory occasionally
and poetry always.

You know how one word in a poem opens
an interior door over and over.

I am always surprised.

Then paper, human-like
from the earth, might seem slight
but can be torn, bent, made wet
and it survives

like us.


Patricia Underwood

At the Table
At the Table
Patricia Underwood is a Washington based mixed media artist / printmaker whose use of materials and symbols in such sophisticated and subtle ways has led her work to be described as evocative, complex and richly textured. Content encompasses nature, human spirituality and healing. After studying the Japanese language, she began to interpret music (a universal language) through her own visual calligraphy, which finds it’s way into almost all of her work.

Her latest body of work “At the Table”, was created for the exhibiton “THE WORLD IS GOING TO HELL, AND I AM PRINTING YELLOW!”. The implied absurdity in the show’s title (concern for choosing a color when there are greater concerns) belies the real importance of the act in a time when the world does seem as if it is coming apart. Artmaking is the sustainance needed to deal with this world. “At the Table” uses her signature symbols to explores the simple yet very complex act of coming ‘to the table’ to break bread.

Eve Stockton

Eve Stockton
Agrarian
Eve Stockton’s woodcuts are inspired by close observation of nature and an eclectic interest in science. Utilizing a multifaceted background in architecture and art, Eve is able to engage the variables of printmaking, allowing her to produce an ongoing body of dynamic, graphic images. The Agrarian Ensemble is exemplary of Stockton’s ongoing investigation of the natural world.

The presentation of her prints in ensemble groupings helps Stockton to better enlarge on her themes of variation, change, and evolution. With her balancing of representation and abstraction, the Agrarian prints suggest a seasonal passage of time that she hopes viewers will find meditative and playful.

Her large woodcuts are printed from three-foot square woodblocks that she carves, a different block for each color layer. Her prints are made with the assistance of master printer, Chris Shore, at The Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, CT and Susan Goldman of Lily Press in Rockville, MD. Since 2005, Eve’s art has been regularly featured on the cover of Nature Genetics Magazine

Judit Varga

Judit Varga
Cocoon
Finding the perfect balance between shape, color, surface and structure is always a challenge, an emotional struggle. The mere existence of this powerful energy makes it so appealing to me to work with clay. My work has a strong connection with nature and its organic structures which is built upon. I’m not interested in simply copying the forms and textures rather I wish to understand the reasons and relations which lay beneath the surface of a shiny pod or a weather-worn shell.

My inspiration comes from these small artifacts I collect on walks or trips with my family. These fragile imprints of nature provide me with rich visual vocabulary, endless shapes and colors. I work in a quiet solitude in my studio and find this peaceful loneliness a perfect stage for my play with clay. In the silence sometimes there is a moment of harmony when the clay and I understand each other perfectly, we know exactly what the other one wants to do. Those are the moments that I long for and this longing draws me back to the studio to open up a new bag of clay and start again.

Emergence 2014 Call to Artists

Emergence 2014: International Artists to Watch


Call to Artists

Galerie Myrtis announces a call to artists for its juried exhibition “Emergence 2014: International Artists to Watch” to be held September 14 – November 15, 2014. The exhibition will explore the renaissance of artistic expression and creativity in contemporary art from a global perspective. An exhibition catalogue will be published and participating artists will receive complimentary copies.
 
Jurors: Sharon Burton, Founder, The Artinista Art Advisory, Washington, D.C.; Robert Devereux, Founder, African Arts Trust and Chairman, Frieze Events & Magazines Ltd, London, England; Deana Haggag, Director, The Contemporary (Museum) of Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland; and Makgati Molebatsi, Board Member, Bag Factory Artists Studios, Johannesburg, South Africa.
 
Curator: Myrtis Bedolla, Founding Director, Galerie Myrtis
 
Artwork: The gallery seeks two and three-dimensional works of art and short films no longer than 15 minutes in length by emerging to mid-career artists. Consideration will be given for works created using digital technology, drawing, film, installation, painting, photography, sculpture, and works on paper in editions of 150 or less.

Note: Giclée prints accepted by photographers only. Must be artist’s original image.

The jurors will select works that are avant-garde and thought provoking, and serve to encourage, enlighten and inspire. All works must be original in both concept and execution, and completed within the last 2 years.
 
Eligibility: Artists 18 years or older from diverse ethnic backgrounds are encourage to participate. There are no restrictions on geographic location. Artwork and film must be available for purchase. Artists with gallery representation are eligible to apply.
 
Commission: Galerie Myrtis will retain a commission of fifty (50%) percent on the sale of artworks/short films sold during the exhibition. Galleries please contact Galerie Myrtis for commission policy at myrtis@galeriemyrtis.com

 
 
Submission Process

About the Jurors

About Galerie Myrtis
 
submit-your-art-150x50
 
Submission Period:
March 1 – June 15, 2014
 
*Acceptance Notification:
no later than: July 15, 2014
 
Submission Fee:
$20.00 for up to 6 images and/or 3 short films
 
* Upon acceptance artist will receive the Exhibition Agreement.

Emergence 2014 About The Jurors

The Stairwell 2009, by Rosalind Kennedy, USA
The Stairwell 2009, by Rosalind Kennedy, USA

see the exhibition
 
 

About the Jurors

 

Sharon Burton, Founder, The Artinista Art Advisory, Washington, D.C

Sharon BurtonSharon Burton is a Washington, DC based artist, art advisor and independent curator. She is the founder and Creative Director of SJB Creative Ventures, LLC which consists of two entities: Gemini Visions Art Studio (launched in 2007) which focuses on her own artistic endeavors as a mixed media/collage/assemblage artist and The Artinista Art Advisory (launched in 2012) with the mission to increase number of professional women art collectors to close the gender gap in fine art collecting through a variety of art consultancy services.

Ms. Burton served as the first curator of the Tubman-Mahan Art Gallery which was located within the Center of Green Urbanism in Washington, DC from 2010-2011 which she coordinated a variety of environmentally-themed exhibitions featuring local emerging artists. Between 2006-2010, Sharon served as an art curator, consultant, juror and intern to a variety of organizations and venues in the Washington, DC area including the former Ramee Art Gallery (Washington, DC), Overdue Recognition Art Gallery (Bowie, Maryland), the Millennium Arts Salon (Washington, DC), DC Chapter of the Women’s Caucus for Art, Liberated Muse Productions (Washington, DC), and Lil So So Productions (Washington, DC).

Sharon has contributed as blogger/arts correspondent highlighting local artists and exhibitions for online websites including the DC Examiner.com (DC Fine Arts Examiner 2010-11), LilSoSo.com (local entertainment website) and the former MahoganyButterfly.com. She is currently contributing as a blogger for a new online lifestyle magazine, Domicilemag.com focusing on highlighting local artists and art galleries in the Metro Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland area.
 
 

Robert Devereux, Founder, African Arts Trust and Chairman, Frieze Events & Magazines Ltd, London, England

Robert DevereuxAfter graduating from Cambridge University, Robert Devereux worked with Amnesty International and Macmillan Publishers before joining Virgin in 1980 as Richard Branson’s partner. He established the entertainment division of the company of which he was Chairman, which included the creation of Virgin Vision, in its day Europe’s leading film and video producer and distributor, the launching of Virgin Radio, Virgin Net, Virgin Interactive Entertainment and masterminding the purchase of Virgin Cinemas.

In 1996 Robert sold his interests in Virgin in order to concentrate on his family, leisure investments and his charitable activities. He has been Chairman of Soho House plc and The Big Sleep Hotels Ltd.

He is currently the Chairman of New Forest Holdings Ltd, a sustainable and commercial African Forestry company with operations in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Mozambique. He is also Chairman of Frieze Events & Magazines Ltd, the London based art fair & publishing business. He is also a member of the supervisory board of Catalyst Partners, a Nairobi based East African private equity firm.

His non-commercial interests include the Portobello Trust, Save the Rhino International, Westside School and Kuona Trust. He has established The African Arts Trust, which through its grant making will support professional practicing artists trying to make a livelihood out of art in Africa. He is Chairman of the Tate’s African Acquisitions Committee and on the advisory board of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative. Robert has recently joined the Global Advidsory Council Board of Ifa Lethu, a Tshware based non-profit foundation. He has been a Governor of The South Bank Centre, a Founding Director of the Central London Training and Enterprise Council and a Founding Director of North Kensington City Challenge.

Robert spends a significant amount of time in East Africa, where he owns a house in Lamu in Northern Kenya, and is involved in a number of community and commercial projects. He is also a passionate collector of modern and contemporary British art and African art and has formed, in partnership with friends, the Daraja collection.
 
 

Deana Haggag,Director, The Contemporary (Museum) of Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland

Deana HaggagDeana Haggag has been the Director of The Contemporary since the spring of 2013. Prior to her work with The Contemporary, she was the Curator-in-Residence at Gallery CA, which is also located in Baltimore, MD in the City Arts building — home to over 90 artists. Deana received her MFA in Curatorial Practice from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a BA from Rutgers University in Art History and Philosophy. In addition to her work at The Contemporary, Deana curates independent exhibitions, consults on various public art initiatives, and contributes to cultural publications. She is on the board of Whoop Dee Doo, Station North Tool Library, and is the Dean of the Baltimore Chapter of the Awesome Foundation. Deana was named “10 People to Watch Under 30” by the Baltimore Sun in 2013.
 
 

Makgati Molebatsi, Board Member, Bag Factory Artists Studios, Johannesburg, South Africa

Makgati MolebatsiMakgati Molebatsi has extensive experience in marketing and integrated communications (advertising, promotions and public relations). She has over 30 years experience gained from various industries; FMCG, retail and energy and advertising.

After working briefly for the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale in a voluntary capacity, her interest in the visual arts was stimulated. The interest has led to establishing meaningful relationships with a large number of artists, curators and art critics locally and internationally. She sits on the board of the Bag Factory Artists Studios in Johannesburg, a visual art organization providing studios for artists and residency programmes for local and international artists; and also serves on the organizations selection committee. She participates in the Business and Art South Africa’s mentorship programme, and is currently mentoring the Director of the Ithuba Art Fund, an initiative which introduces early career artists to the art market.
 
 

Curator

Myrtis Bedolla, Founding Director, Galerie Myrtis

Myrtis_Bedolla-Baltimore-MagazieMyrtis Bedolla is founding director of Galerie Myrtis, a contemporary fine art gallery 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.

Myrtis possesses over 20 years of experience as an advisor to private and institutional collectors in the acquisition and sale of fine art; and provides professional curatorial services, lectures and educational programming to corporate, civic and arts organizations. She is the recipient of the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship, African Language Institute, Shona Language and Culture, from Michigan State University; holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland, University College, and received her curatorial training at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. As cultural liaison for the embassies of Ghana, Haiti, Mali, Republic of Georgia and Zimbabwe; Ms. Bedolla uses art to encourage cultural exchange and awareness. One of the highlights of her career was an opportunity to participate in a project with the National Museum of Niger, Niamey to research and document the utilitarian and ceremonial art forms created by women of the eight ethnic groups in Niger. The objects collected were featured in the exhibition: The World of Women of Niger mounted at the museum in 2005.

Ms. Bedolla is a contributing writer to The International Review of African American Art and Valentine Magazine; online newsletters: ARTINFO and IRAAA (International Review of African American Art). She serves on the Art Advisory Board, University of Maryland University College, College Park 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.

Myrtis 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 has served on the Art Advisory Committee for the Deutsch Foundation, and is a past Grant Panelist for the District of Columbia Commission for the Arts and Humanities.

Myrtis Bedolla photo credit: Baltimore Style Magazine, Justin Tsucalas, Photographer

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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