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. Share in delectable treats and enjoy a selection of delicious teas.
Tea with Myrtis – Reparations: Some Things are Just Owed and Some More than Others
with Wesley Clark and Craig Bryant. Moderated by Myrtis Bedolla
October 27, 2019
2:00-4:00 pm
Cost: SOLD OUT
Join us for a Tea with Myrtis art salon like no other. Maryland based artist Wesley Clark will take us on a journey into his imaginary world where reparations and racial socialization are addressed through the deployment of interwoven history, Afro-futurists, coded messages, and subversive and empowering objects.
In a conversation with Clark, moderator Myrtis Bedolla will explore the artist’s notion of what America owes the descendants of slaves and most importantly, what they owe themselves. Craig Bryant who inspired Clark’s Prophet Library series will join the discussion. Bryant, an employee of the Library of Congress, is co-author of Maps That Changed Our World published by the Library of Congress.
view artwork | artist statement | curatorial statement
About the Panelist
Wesley Clark was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Syracuse University and a Master of Fine Arts from George Washington University — where he was twice awarded the Morris Louis Fellowship in 2010 and 2011; a fellowship primarily awarded once per incoming graduate class.
Clark primarily creates mixed media wood assemblages that read as familiar to the general masses, and are often hybrids of two or more objects or concepts. He refers to these objects as artifacts or fictional artifacts, made to look as if they’ve lived a life prior to being on display and prompting viewers to question their importance and create their own narratives based on their experiences. Clark infuses social and politic criticisms into his works; merging the historical with the contemporary, to speak on issues faced by Blacks in America.
Wesley Clark has exhibited works at institutions such as the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington D.C.; Columbia College Glass Curtain Gallery, Chicago, Illinois; and Prizm Art Fair, Miami, Florida during Art Basel.
Clark’s works, Target, 456 and Welcome to the Tea Party were acquired in 2013 by noted art collector, Peggy Cooper Cafritz . In 2016, he was commissioned by The American Alliance of Museums to create, Shift. Rotate. Repeat — a public artwork at the site of President Lincoln’s cottage in Washington, D.C. for museum week. Clark was a panelist for the Critical Craft Forum that took place at the College Arts Association 2016 conference. He has also been a guest lecturer at Capital City Public Charter School High School, in Washington, D.C. In addressing the student body, Clark offered insight on the creative process and the development of artwork, from conceptualization to materialization.
Clark has taught at George Washington University’s Columbian College/Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, teaching Introduction to Painting, Introduction to Drawing, and First year Studio 2D. He is a member of the D.C. based artists’ collective Delusions of Grandeur. Clark currently resides in Hyattsville, MD, with his wife and two beautiful children.
Craig Bryant was born in Washington, DC and currently resides in Hillcrest Heights, MD. He received his diploma from the prestigious Georgetown Preparatory School and later attended and studied at Syracuse University.
For the larger part of his career, Bryant has held various positions at the Library of Congress, detailed to work the numerous special collections and holdings of the largest library in the world. While working in the Rare Books and Special Collections Bryant worked on the African American Pamphlet Collection. This collection published from 1822 through 1909, by African-American authors and others who wrote about slavery, African colonization, emancipation, reconstruction, and related topics. The materials range from personal accounts and public orations to organizational reports and legislative speeches.
Soon after Bryant set his sights on the Geography and Maps Collection. Here he examined the relationship between geography with both cultural and societal evolution. Bryant was particularly interested in the role that geography plays in both marronage and rebellion throughout the African Diaspora. He was later tasked with aiding in the South Sudan Map project, which included examining early 19th century Anglo-Egyptians in an effort to create an accurate border to split the former Sudan. In 2018 Bryant would co-author the immersive web essay, Maps That Changed Our World, which would be published by the Library of Congress. Using the collections of the Geography and Map division the essay explores the changes in world maps throughout the centuries and how as a result, perceptions of the world have shifted. Bryant has also begun to do field work recently traveling to the United Arab Emirates.
Bryant volunteers with the District Public Library mentoring and promoting literacy to at risk youth. He also is a member of Everybody Wins DC, which is a reading based mentoring program for DC school students created by the United States Senate. In his private life Bryant is working on writing books and essays regarding the African Diaspora and the Black struggle for liberation. He also enjoys fiction and is writing a collection of short stories fusing Greek tragedy, African folklore and magical realism. He continues to reside in Hillcrest Heights, MD.
Myrtis Bedolla is founding director of Galerie Myrtis, a contemporary fine art gallery and art advisory located in Baltimore, Maryland. Voted, Best Gallery by the Baltimore Sun in 2017, Bedolla has also been featured in BMORE Art magazine, Issue 3, Living with Art: Myrtis Bedolla Builds a Home and Gallery in Old Goucher and in the Baltimore Style Magazine, October 2013 issue Women in the Arts which honored women at the helm of the Baltimore art scene.
Bedolla possesses over 30 years of experience as an advisor to individual collectors, and public and private institutions 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 and earned an on-line certificate in Cultural Theory for Curators from the Node Center for Curatorial Studies, Berlin, Germany.
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
Wesley Clark
The Tell-All Earbox: model no. C0mm0n3r-1
wood, oil paint, shellac
8 x 11 x 8.5
2019