Dr. Myrtis Bedolla is the proprietor and visionary founder of Galerie Myrtis, an emerging blue-chip gallery specializing in works by African American and African Diasporic artists. With a career spanning over three decades as a gallerist, art advisor, and curator, Bedolla has made significant
contributions to the art world.

In 2022, Bedolla made history as the first African American curator of the award- winning exhibition “The Afro-Futurist Manifesto: Reimagining Blackness,” showcased at the 59th Venice Biennale as part of the European Cultural Centre’s Personal Structures art fair. The exhibit later traveled to Baltimore, Maryland, where it was featured at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture and the James E. Lewis Museum of Art (JELMA) at Morgan State
University.

Bedolla partnered with Christie’s Auction House to promote equity and inclusion in the art world through a special offering of artworks created by artists featured in the Venice Biennale exhibition. This partnership gained national attention, including coverage in The New York Times article “Christie’s and a Baltimore Gallery to Sell Work by Black Artists” and Artnet’s “A Black-Owned Baltimore Gallery Aims to Change the Game by Partnering Directly with Christie’s” in September 2022.

Highlighting the challenges faced by African American art dealers, Bedolla was featured in The New York Times editorial “Black Gallerists Press Forward Despite a Market That Holds Them Back” in June 2020 by Robin Pogrebin and authored “Why My Blackness is Not a Threat to Your Whiteness” in Cultured Magazine in July 2020.

Bedolla’s curatorial work and scholarly contributions earned her an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She also received a Governor’s Citation from Governor Wes Moore, underscoring her profound influence in the art and culture realm and establishing her as a distinguished curator and scholar.

Among her notable educational achievements, Bedolla holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland, University College. She received her curatorial training at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, and earned certificates
in Cultural Theory for Curators and Curatorial Procedures from the Node Center for Curatorial Studies, Berlin, Germany.

Bedolla has presented at prestigious institutions, including the Baltimore Museum of Art, Banneker-Douglass Museum, Haitian Heritage Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Reginald F. Lewis Museum, Rutgers University, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Board Appointments: Association of Art Museum Curators & AAMC Foundation Trustee; University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), Arts Program Chair; and the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City.

Professional Memberships: ArtTable, Association of African American Museums (AAAM), and the International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA).

Board appointments
Association of Art Museum Curators & AAMC Foundation Trustee
University of Maryland Global Campus, Arts Program Chair
Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City Board

Professional memberships
ArtTable
Association of African American Museums (AAAM)
International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA)
 
Image courtesy photographer Grace Roselli, “Pandora’s BoxX Project”

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