Women Heal through Rite and Ritual – Tawny Chatmon

Women Heal through Rite and Ritual

Tawny Chatmon

Tawny Chatmon
Mother God, 2020
24k gold leaf and acrylic paint on archival pigment print
43"h x 37"w
Price: $11,000

Tawny Chatmon
Little Eedie: The Redemption Series, 2019
Archival Pigment Print, Acrylic Paint, 24k Gold Leaf
31"h x 26.5"w
Price: $8,000

Tawny Chatmon
Two: The Awakening Series, 2019
24K gold leaf and acrylic paint on archival pigment print
49"h x 35"w
Price: $9,500

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 deep-seated 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 life’s work.

The primary theme that drives my art practice is celebrating the beauty of black childhood. I am devoted to creating portraits that are loosely inspired by works painted during the 15th-19th centuries with the specific 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 photographic components to achieve a work that is a new photographic expression. Often lending to them the eyes of someone their elder and more wise and almost always exaggerating their hair and features in a somewhat rebellious celebratory way (in doing so, I unapologetically honor traits and characteristics often deemed unsightly in Western culture). Thereafter, I may superimpose antique patterns and textures, vintage botanical and wildlife illustrations or hand drawn digital illustration. If I feel I am not yet complete, after each portrait is refined and printed, I may combine paint and gilding adding ornamental elements inspired by 19th century artworks.

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.

Biography | Resume

Biography
My work and life have gone through many phases that have lead me to create the work I do today. I attribute this evolution to three major shifts: The decision to no longer pursue a career in dramatic arts, the birth of my first child and the death of my father.

Before becoming a photographer, I was a performer. My early childhood consisted of traveling from continent to continent as an “army brat”. After settling in the United States, my pre-teens to early adulthood was spent performing in plays put on by my aunts theater company, dinner theatre programs, school plays, attending acting workshops and the like. After receiving a small scholarship for dramatic arts in High School I enrolled in a dramatic arts conservatory, was cast in an off Broadway play, had been an extra in just enough films making me eligible to receive my Union card…and out of nowhere, I quit. Having no idea what to do next or how I would creatively earn a living, I turned to photography.

At 19, I was gifted my first camera. Photography was not new to me although considering it a career choice was. I floated through ages 20-24 self-teaching, exploring with various genres of photography and using my camera as a means of making a living. During this time, I also began learning Photoshop and taking on graphic and web design jobs.

Photographing children was something that never crossed my mind before becoming a mother. After the birth of my son, my life organically became about documenting his life. Ages 25-28 were almost exclusively dedicated to my joy of photographing him. This expanded to documenting these moments for family members which then lead to offering to do so for other families as well.

My first experience working in commercial photography came after being recommended by a client for a local commercial job. Afterwards, I began to seriously pursue other opportunities shooting for (or providing photographs for) YMCA, Until There’s a Cure and NEA and publications such as Vogue Bambini, Parenting Magazine & Baby Talk Magazine.

In 2010, my outlook and relationship with my camera changed when I began photographing my father’s battle with cancer. What we thought would be a testimony of his victory turned out to be my documentation of cancer taking his life. Not much felt worthy of picking up my camera for after that. With his passing, something in me died, but something else awakened. I began to stop solely looking to my camera as a means of making a living and began using it as a way to communicate my joy, my pain & my frustration.

Now 39, I look to photography less as a career or a job and more as a calling. My work is ever-changing and constantly evolving as am I. The portraits I create today are almost always inspired by my children and usually of someone that I am close to in some way (my daughters, son, God daughter, a relative, or a model that I’ve worked with in the past) and is driven by my desire contribute something important to a world that I want my children to thrive in.

Artist’s Short

One to Watch: Tawny Chatmon

Exhibitions

Women Heal through Rite and Ritual – Lavett Ballard

Women Heal through Rite and Ritual

Lavett Ballard

Lavett Ballard
Black Venus, 2019
Collage on hand carved birch wood panel
24h"x12w"
Price: $1,500

Lavett Ballard
Kindred, 2020
Collage with digital paper, acrylic and oil paint on reclaimed wood fencing
6'h x 4'w
Price: $7,500

Lavett Ballard
She is Immortal, 2020
Collage with digital paper, acrylic paint on reclaimed wood fencing
28"h x 18"w
Price: $2,000

Lavett Ballard
A Song Flung up to Heaven, 2020
Collage with digital paper, acrylic and oil paint on reclaimed wood fencing
71"h x 37"w
Price: $5,000

Lavett Ballard
Healing Rituals, 2020
Collage with digital paper, acrylic paint on reclaimed wood fencing
36"h x 27"w
Price: $3,000

As a child, I would spend summers at our family farm in Virginia. This ritual of traveling from the North to the South all the while being fed the stories of how we grew to gain the property and how the “Big House” I would be staying in was built by my three times great grandmother’s sons. The house was a step back in time prior, to the flight of the Great Migration which sent masses toward opportunities in the North. Through this experience, I was drawn to the history of the log cabin that held generations of my family in a home surrounded by photographs that chronicled our history.

This experience helped to foster an interest in visual storytelling while fusing the wood that surrounded me during the summers of my youth. My strong affinity for imagery and history has led me to focus on creating a visual lexicon of the African American experience and self-identity.

I’ve spent hours compiling a photographic catalog of female and male images that cover the African diaspora over different geographic areas and historic periods. The prints are collaged, painted, destroyed and reborn to create a re-imagined visual narrative. I use reclaimed large and small aged wood fences, as a symbolic reference to how fences keep people in and out, just as racial and gender identities can act as barriers in our socially. These fences are then arranged as ‘altars’ as icons to honor the strength and determination of each subject.

Biography | Resume

Biography
Lavett Ballard is an Artist, Art historian, Curator, and Author. She hold a dual Bachelor’s in Studio Art and Art History with a minor in Museum Studies from Rutgers University, and an MFA in Studio Art from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Ballard’s art has been included in literary, film and theatre productions and museum, galleries, public, private institutions and exhibitions nationwide. Among other accolades I have been named by Black Art in America as one of the Top 10 Female Emerging Artists to Collect and has been nominated for the inaugural Art for Social change Pew Foundation funded Residency among other distinguished honors. Her work has been acquired by prominent collections such as the Smithsonian, the African American Museum of Philadelphia, the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, Weeksville Heritage Center, the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection and the Grant and Tamia Hill private Collections.

Ballard views her art as a re-imagined visual narrative of people of African descent. Her use of imagery reflects social issues affecting primarily Black women’s stories within a historical context. Her current body of work uses collaged photos adorned with paint, oil pastels, and metallic foils. These photos are deconstructed and layered on reclaimed large and small aged wood fences. The use of fences is a symbolic reference to how fences keep people in and out, just as racial and gender identities can do the same socially. The fusion of wood and photography offers artwork that both explores her southern roots, visually speaks volumes to continuing themes within her community.

Exhibitions

Women Heal through Rite and Ritual

Women Heal through Rite and Ritual – Online Exhibition

Artists | Artwork | Videos | Exhibition Catalog

Women Heal through Rite and Ritual draws from the imaginative narratives of artists Lavett Ballard, Tawny Chatmon, Oletha DeVane, Shanequa Gay, Delita Martin, Elsa Muñoz and Renée Stout who look to non-Western traditions for inspiration in exploring a woman’s role as nurturer of family and community; and as traditional healer, conjure woman, and clairvoyant who dwells in both the physical and spiritual realms.

Delita Martin, "Black Moon"

Elsa Muñoz, "Controlled Burn 14"

Oletha DeVane, "Sanctuary"

Renée Stout, "The Time She Saw Too Much"

Shanequa Gay, "summoning"

Tawny Chatmon, "Two: The Awakening Series"

Lavett Ballard, "Healing-Rituals"

Conveyed through visceral imagery—manifested in paintings, prints, photography, and sanctuaries are the artists’ cultural, social, spiritual, and political commentaries on the rites of womanhood, and an intimate and compelling testament to the essence of the divine feminine and self.

As giver of life, custodian of traditional African religion and customs, preserver of culture, counselor, and psychologist, and at times, the conduit between two worlds, Women Heal through Rite and Ritual celebrates and reclaims a woman’s power and place in the natural and supernatural worlds.

As the COVID-19 (coronavirus) continues to permeate every aspect of our lives, we recognize the need to take preventative measures in order to ensure the safety of our staff, our artists, and our patrons. While the gallery remains closed, we offer an online version of our current exhibition Women Heal through Rite and Ritual. We are planning to hold the opening reception and artist talk in the future. However, because of the fluidity of the situation, no date will be announced at this time. Until then enjoy the online exhibition!

Tea with Myrtis – Artists’ Talk: Members of AfriCOBRA

Tea with Myrtis: Artists’ Talk: Members of AfriCOBRA discuss the history and mission of the collective, and their role in shaping the Black Arts Movement. Melanee Harvey, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Art History, Howard University joins the conversation. Dr. Harvey authored the essay for the exhibition catalogue AfriCOBRA is a continuum: The Fifty-Year Legacy of the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists. Myrtis Bedolla, Curator will moderator the discussion. Registration is Required- Seating is Limited

Tea served with savory treats starting at 3:00pm • Discussion begins at 3:30pm

$20 per person

Galerie Myrtis extends a special thanks to Darryl Gorman for sponsoring the event.

Renee Stout
The Time She Saw too Much, 2010
Acrylic, oil paint, colored pencil and collage on wood panel
36 x 36 inches

AfriCOBRA: The Evolution of a Movement

Opening Reception
September 15th, 5:00 – 7:00 pm

Tea with Myrtis – Registration Required
October 13th, 3:00pm – 5:00pm

Featured Artists (year of membership)
Akili Ron Anderson (1979), Kevin Cole (2003), Adger Cowans (1978), Michael D. Harris (1979), Napoleon Jones-Henderson (founding member, 1968), James Phillips (1973), Frank Smith (1973), Nelson Stevens (founding member, 1968), and Renee Stout (2017)

AfriCOBRA

AfriCOBRA Biographies of Artists

September 15 – October 27th, 2018

Featured Artists (year of membership)
Akili Ron Anderson (1979), Kevin Cole (2003), Adger Cowans (1978), Michael D. Harris (1979), Napoleon Jones-Henderson (founding member, 1968), James Phillips (1973), Frank Smith (1973), Nelson Stevens (founding member, 1968), and Renee Stout (2017)

Biographies of the Artists

Akili Ron Anderson
Born in 1946 in Washington, DC
Lives and works in Washington, DC
AfriCOBRA Member: 1979

Akili Ron Anderson studied at the Corcoran School of Art, Washington, DC (1964-65), and graduated from Howard University, Washington, DC (BFA 1969), (MFA 2008).

His solo exhibitions include Akili Ron Anderson: A Fifty Year Retrospective of Black Art and Life (2016; Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA); Paintings for Projection (1973; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC); and solo exhibitions at The New Muse (1977; New York, NY); Miya Gallery (1975; Washington, DC); Weusi Gallery (1975; New York, NY); Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corp. (1975; New York, NY); Metropolitan Applied Research Center (1975; New York, NY); Howard University Gallery of Art (1973; Washington, DC); and Duke University (1969; Durham, NC)

Anderson’s work has been included in several group exhibitions, including AfriCOBRA Now: Works on Paper (2016; Hearne Fine Art, Little Rock, AR); It Takes a Nation: Art for Social Justice (2016; American University Museum, Washington, DC); From the Ashes: Rebirth of the Human Spirit (2014; The Pepco Edison Place Gallery, Washington, DC); We Speak the Souls of Ancestors (2013; DC Commission on the Art and Humanities, Washington, DC); Three Decades of American Printmaking: The Brandywine Workshop (2013; Philadelphia Museum of Art); AfriCOBRA Now: Contemporary American Works Rooted in Africa (2007; Hampton University Museum, VA); Art is Service of the Lord (1995; Schomburg Museum, New York, NY); and has shown at the Kreeger Museum (2011; Washington, DC); the Anacostia Museum (1999; Washington, DC); the Orlando Museum of Art (1997, Orlando, FL); and the F. Bader Gallery (1974; Washington, DC).

Kevin Cole
Born 1960 in Pine Bluff, AR
Lives and works in Atlanta
AfriCOBRA Member: 2003

Kevin Cole graduated from the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff (BS 1982); the University of Illinois, Champaign (MA 1983); and Northern Illinois University, Dekalb (MFA 1985).

His solo exhibitions include Blanket Series (2018; Dinah Washington Cultural Art Center, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL); Sound tracks of Color (2017; Plano Art Center, Plano, TX); Living off the Wall (2014; 10th Street Gallery, St. Louis, MO); and Beneath the Sound of Color (2007; Hearne Fine Arts, Little Rock, AR).

Cole’s work has been included in group exhibitions, including Outside the Lines, (2013-2014; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Valerie Cassel Oliver, Curator, Houston, TX); Fragments of Frozen Sound (2008; Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia); In Context: The Language of Abstraction (2008; Abrons Arts Center, New York); AfriCOBRA Now: Contemporary American Works Rooted in Africa (2007; Hampton University Museum, VA); Kevin Cole and Alonzo Davis (2206; Old Dillard Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL); Different Way of Seeing (2006; Noyes Museum of Art, Oceanville, NJ) and Absence of Color (2001; Philadelphia Museum of Art).

In 2018, Kevin Cole was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.

Adger Cowans
Born in 1936 in Columbus, OH
Lives and works in New York, NY
AfriCOBRA Member: 1978

Adger Cowens graduated from Ohio University (BFA, 1958).

His solo exhibitions include Running Deep (2007; Philips Museum of Art, Lancaster, PA); Adger Cowans (2005; Hearne Fine Art Gallery, Little Rock, AR); Adger Cowans (2001; Ronald M. Ollie Collection); Captured Moments (1989; June Kelly Gallery, New York, NY); Adger Cowans (1989; Gordon Parks Gallery, Yonkers, NY); Adger Cowans (1963; Raymond Kerr Gallery, New York, NY); Moments (1981; Greenspace Gallery, New York, NY); Adger Cowans (1977; Jade Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA); Adger Cowans (1975; Shado Gallery, Oregon City, OR); Adger Cowans (1967; Friends Gallery (James Van Der Zee) New York, NY); and Adger Cowans (1965; Heliography Gallery, New York, NY)

Cowans’s work has been included in several group exhibitions, including Audioacity: Music as Muse (2011; Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, PA); Elements of Soul (2011; Chashama Gallery, New York, NY); Two Decades of Excellence (2008-09; Hearne Fine Arts Gallery, Little Rock, AR); Apart Together (2008; A.P. Garcia Gallery, New York, NY); AfriCOBRA: Contemporary American Work Rooted in Africa (2007; Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA); Committed to the Image: Contemporary Black Photography (2001; Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY); A History of African-American Photography (1999-2000; The Smithsonian Institution; Washington, DC); Locating the Spirit; Religion and Spirituality in African-American Art (1999; Anacostia Museum, Washington, DC); and he has shown at The Studio Museum in Harlem (1973; New York, NY); and the George Eastman Gallery House (1963; Rochester, NY).

Michael D. Harris
Born in 1948 in
Lives and works in Atlanta
AfriCOBRA Member: 1979

Dr. Michael D. Harris graduated from Bowling Green State University (BS, 1971), Howard University (MFA, 1979), Yale University (MA, African American Studies, 1989), (MA, History of Art, 1990), (M.Phil, History of Art, 1991), (PhD, 1996).

His solo exhibitions include Art Portraits/Portraits of the Artist (2017-2018; September Gray Gallery, Atlanta, GA); Equal Rites: The Art of Michael D. Harris (2011-2012; Hammonds House Galleries, Atlanta, GA); Blues People (2005; The Beach Institute, Savannah, GA); and Letters from Home (2004; Sonja Hanes Center for Black Culture, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC).

Harris’s work has been included in several group exhibitions, including Portraits of Who We Are (2018; David Driskell Center, University of Maryland ); AfriCOBRA Now: Works on Paper (2016; Hearne Fine Art, Little Rock, AR); AfriCOBRA: Art for the People (2015; Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Art and Culture); 2ATW: Two Artists, Two Works (2014; Center for the Art of Africa and It’s Diaspora, University of Texas, Austin); AfriCOBRA: Art and Impact (2013; The DuSable Museum, Chicago, IL); Artifical Afrika (2006; Gigantic Art Space, New York, NY); The Road In Sight: Contemporary Art in North Carolina (2005; Duke University, Durham, NC); Blackness in Color: Visual Expressions of the Black Arts Movement (2000; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University); Three Shades of Black (2000; Denver Art Museum, CO); AfriCOBRA and Group Fromaje, Esthetique Universelle, Universal Aesthetics (1989; Howard University, Washington, DC); and An Exhibition of Photographs Selected From Black Photographer’s Annual Volume II (1974; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY).

Dr. Michael D. Harris was also named to the list of curators and scholars, “25 Who Made A Difference,” in the fall 2001 issue of International Review of African American Art.

Napoleon Jones-Henderson
Born in 1943 in Chicago, IL
Lives and works in Roxbury, MA
AfriCOBRA Member: (founding member, 1968)

Napoleon Jones-Henderson studied at the Sorbonne Student Continuum-Student and Artists Center, Paris, France (1963), and Northern Illinois University (1974). He graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA, 1971), and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MFA, 2005).

His work has been included in several group exhibitions, including AfriCOBRA Now: Works on Paper (2016; Hearne Fine Art Gallery, Little Rock, AR); For Whom It Stands, Too (2014; Star-Spangled Banner Flag House & Museum, Baltimore, MD); AfriCOBRA: Art and Impact (2013; The DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago, IL); AfriCOBRA: Revolutionary Images (2007; Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA); Living Legends (2007; King Arts Complex, Columbus, OH); and has exhibited at the Ohio Crafts Museum (2014; Columbus, OH); Museum of Afro-American Art and Culture (2006; Philadelphia, PA); Rhode Island College (2006; Providence, RI); the Maryland Federation of Artists (2005; Baltimore, MD); and the Maryland Institute College of Art (2005; Baltimore, MD). His solo show, Showin Up and Showin Out, was featured at the Roxbury Community College (2016; Roxbury, MA).

Jones-Henderson’s work has also been acquired by numerous institutional collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, DuSable Museum of African American History, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Brandywine Print Archive.

James Phillips
Born 1945 in Brooklyn
Lives and works in Baltimore
AfriCOBRA Member: 1973

James Phillips studied at the Fleisher Art Memorial School, Philadelphia (1960s), the Philadelphia College of Art (1964-65), and the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore (MFA 1998).

His solo exhibitions include Homecoming: Da Homey Comes Home: Works by James Phillips (2012; Africa House, Lynchburg, VA); Works on Paper (1996; Parish Gallery, Washington DC); The Awesome Image: Old and New Paintings by James Phillips (1995; Hampton University Museum, VA); James Phillips (1991; Harrison Museum of African American Culture, Roanoke, VA); and James Phillips, AfriCobra Abstractionist (1991; Hammond House, Atlanta).

Phillip’s work has been featured in several group exhibitions, including Outside the Lines, (2013-2014; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Valerie Cassel Oliver, Curator, Houston, TX); AfriCobra and the Chicago Black Arts Movement (2010; Dittmar Memorial Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL); Silent Voices, Loud Echoes (2006; African American Historical and Cultural Museum, Philadelphia); Black Art, Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African American Art (1989; Dallas Museum of Art); Tradition and Conflict, 1963-1973 (1985; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York); and Directions in Afro American Art (1974; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY).

Works in are in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and University of Maryland University College.

Frank Smith
Born 1939 in Chicago
Lives and works in Rock Cave, WV
AfriCOBRA Member: 1973

Frank Smith graduated from the University of Illinois, Chicago (BFA 1958), and Howard University, Washington, D.C. (MFA 1972).

His work has been featured in several group exhibitions, including Outside the Lines, (2013-2014; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Valerie Cassel Oliver, Curator, Houston, TX); AfriCOBRA: Art & Impact (2013, DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago, IL); Beyond: a Symposium on the Impact of the Black Power Movement on America (2009; Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, Washington, DC); Moments in Time (2005; Banneker-Douglass Museum, Washington, DC); African American Expressions (1995; Japan Information & Cultural Center, Washington, DC); African American Abstraction in Printmaking (1991; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL); Since the Harlem Renaissance: Fifty Years of Afro-American Art (1985: Bucknell Center Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA); and AfriCOBRA: The First Twenty Years (1990; Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA).

His work has also been acquired by numerous institutional collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, the National Museum of African American History, National Endowment for the Arts, and the U.S. Department of State.

Nelson Stevens
Born in 1938 in Brooklyn, NY
Lives and works in Owings Mills, MD
AfriCOBRA Member: (founding member, 1968)

Nelson Stevens graduated from Ohio University (BFA, 1962) and Kent State University (MFA, 1969)

His work has been included in several group exhibitions, including Soul of a Nation; Art in the Age of Black Power (2017; Tate Modern, London, UK); Constructing Identity (2017; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, OR); AfriCOBRA: The First 29 Years Traveling Exhibition (1990; Lee Hall Gallery, Clemson University, Clemson, SC); AfriCOBRA and Group Fromaje, Esthetique Universelle, Universal Aesthetics (1989; Howard University, Washington, DC); AfriCOBRA IV (1977; Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum, Philadelphia, PA); and his work has been shown at, the Studio Museum in Harlem (1973; New York, NY); the Center for African American Art (1972; Boston, MA); the Carnegie Mellon Institute (1972; Pittsburgh, PA); and the Museum of African & African-American Art (1980; Buffalo, NY).

His early and more recent works have been collected by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Kent State University, Fisk University, Karamu House in Cleveland, the Chicago Institute of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum.

Renée Stout
Born in 1958 in Junction City, KS
Lives and works in Washington, DC
AfriCOBRA Member: 2017

Renée Stout graduated from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg, PA (BFA 1980).

Her solo exhibitions include Funk Dreamscapes from the Invisible Parallel Universe: Renée Stout (2018; John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI); Journal: Book One (2007; Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington, DC); Church of the Crossroads (2006; The Arts Center, St. Petersburg, FL); Fragments of a Secret Life (2005; Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington, DC); Readers, Advisors, and Storefront Churches (2005; The Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA); Dueling Dualities (1997; Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, New York, NY); Astonishment and Power: Kongo Minkisi and the Art of Renee Stout (1993; The National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC); and Chapel Gallery (1987; Mount Vernon College, Washington, DC).

Stout’s work has been included in several group exhibitions, including SO ARTICULATE: Black Women Artists Reclaim the Narrative (2008; Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA); The Book as Art: Twenty Years of Artist’s Books from The National Museum of Women in the Arts (2006; The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC); Paper Trail: African American Works on Paper (2006; High Museum, Atlanta, GA); Drawn to Representation (2005; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC); The View From Here (2000; State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia); Postcards from Black America (1998; The De Beyerd Museum, Holland, Netherlands); Metaphysical Metaphors (1994; The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA); and Site-seeing: Travel and Tourism in Contemporary Art (1991; The Whitney Museum of American Art Downtown at Federal Reserve Plaza, New York, NY).

AfriCOBRA

AfriCOBRA Artwork

September 15 – October 27th, 2018

Artwork

Drawing from the tenets of the Black Power Movement, and the philosophical concepts and aesthetic principals of AfriCOBRA—works emerging from the collective captured the ethos of the black community. Through their imagery, rendered in a palette of “Kool-aid” colors, developed a black iconography rooted in African ancestry and black pride; and a lexicon, as in the term “mimesis at midpoint” to describe their artistic approach. These expressions, couched in idioms, such as, “the rich lustre of a just-washed ‘Fro” formed a vernacular that defines cultural nuances of the black experience. Myrtis Bedolla, Curator

Akili Ron Anderson
Sankofa Woman, 2016
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 24 inches

Akili Ron Anderson
Tree of Life, 1999
Colored Pencil, Ink, and Metallic Paint on Paper
37" x 30.5"

Kevin Cole
Do Lord Remember Me, III, 2009
Mixed Media, 31" x 108 "x 24"

Kevin Cole
Do Lord Remember Me, V, 2009
Etched Aluminum, 25" x 109" x 28"

Kevin Cole
Guidance with Grace I, 2014
Mixed media on wood
18 x 60 x 7 inches

Kevin Cole
When Burdens are Lifted, 2017
Etched Aluminum 15" x 24" x 17"

Adger Cowan
To Market, 2014
Acrylic on rag paper
17 x 44 inches

Adger Cowans
Strolling, 2014
Acrylic on Rag Paper, 17" x 44"

Adger Cowans
2 in One (Janus Painting, side 1), 2018
Acrylic on Canvas, 20" x 20"

Adger Cowans
2 in One (Janus Painting, side 2), 2018
Acrylic on Canvas, 20" x 20"

Akili Ron Anderson
Untitled V, 2010
Oil and Water Based Monoprint, 30" x 22

Akili Ron Anderson
Middle Passage, (Provenance: Louis Ford Collection), 1986-99
Colored Pencil, Ink, and Metallic Paint on Paper, 24" x 31", (Request Viewing)

Michael Harris
Penance for Oshun, 2004
Archival Digital Media, 30" x 20"

Michael Harris
Mothers and the Presence of Myth, 1994
Offset Lithograph, 30" x 22"

Michael Harris
Origins ’53, 2002
Archival digital print
Edition no: 32/40
9 x 12 inches (unframed)

Michael Harris
Barbados Family Tree, 2009
Collaged photos, beads, drips of acrylic, shells, hand written Amharic text, and bits of metal drip from the tree, 34" x 42"

Napoleon Jones-Henderson
Ain't Nobody Nothin Without God, 1999
Enamel on copper on mahogany wood
39 x 39 x 2 inches

Napoleon Jones-Henderson
Three Graces…, 2004-07
Colored Pencil, Variegated Lead, 32" x 24"

Napoleon Jones-Henderson
Txai,1994
Lithograph an Gold Ink, 30" x 22"

James Phillips
Ghost of our Ancestors, #2: Ju Ju Series, 2017
Acrylic on Paper, 34" x 40"

James Phillips
Ghosts of our Ancestor, #1: Ju Ju Series, 2017
Acrylic on Paper, 34" x 40"

James Phillips
Juju Revisited, 2016-17
Acrylic on Paper, 40.5” x 34”

James Phillips
Klan Nightmare: Ju Ju Revisited Series, 2018
Acrylic on paper
40 x 40 inches

Frank Smith
Discard and Dat Card: Race Card Series, 2007
Mixed media collage on paper
27 ½ x 23 ½ inches
Provenance: Louis Ford Collection

Frank Smith
Eyes Always Seen (Provenance: Jennifer Harris Collection), 2009 Acrylic, Paper, and Textiles on Paper, 16" x 17"

Frank Smith
So We Too Cool (Provenance: Mimi Wolford Collection), Unknown
Acrylic on wood panel, 41" x 31"

Nelson Stevens
Sister Mine: Sister Will You Stand With Me Series, 1994
Acrylic on Board, 36" x 30"

Nelson Stevens
Booker T. in Tuskegee, 1979
Acrylic on Board, 40" x 30"

Nelson Stevens
Imani Impulse, 1980
Silkscreen, 38" x 26"

Nelson Stevens
2 B Wanted, 1996
Acrylic and colored pencil on Arches Rives Paper, 22" x 30"

Nelson Stevens
And His Name Is, 1995
Colored pencil and acrylic on black arches rives paper
43½ x 53¾ inches

Renee Stout
The Time She Saw too Much, 2010
Acrylic, oil paint, colored pencil and collage on wood panel
36 x 36 inches

Renee Stout
Red Room at Five (Portfolio of 6 cibachrome prints), 1997-1999
A portfolio of 6 Cibachrome photographs, 5" x 6"

Renee Stout
Legba and the Pearl Ground, 2015
Acrylic paint and mixed media on paper, 19" x 24"

Catalogue

AfriCOBRA Catalogue

AfriCOBRA: The Evolution of a Movement

Price: $29.99 USD +S&H – Limited-edition

Galerie Myrtis offers for sale the exhibition catalogue AfriCOBRA: The Evolution of a Movement, commemorating the 50th anniversary of AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) the coalition of black revolutionary artists whose aesthetic emerged from activism and a commitment to rail against racism through positive, powerful and uplifting imagery.

artwork | artists | about AFRICOBRA

Catalogue essayist: Melanee Harvey, Ph.D.
Curatorial Statement: Myrtis Bedolla

Paperback: 40 pages | 39 color and black and white illustrations
Year published: 2018
Language: English
ISBN: 978-0981960289
Dimensions: 8.5 x 11 inches

AfriCOBRA