“Material Girls” Exhibition at The Lewis in Baltimore

“Material Girls” – a wonderful group exhibition of Contemporary Black Women Artists – is currently on view at the  Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore, MD. The exciting show runs  through October 16, 2011 and is most definitely worth a trip!  The 8 participating artists use materials as varied as wood, metal, glass, manufactured and re-purposed materials including plastic bags, tissue paper, rubber tires, combs and human hair. As the museum notes, “The materials they prod, ply and piece together play on a range of cultural meanings, personal memories, and social agendas.”

Featured contemporary artists include:

• Chakaia Booker
• Sonya Clark
• Torkwase Dyson
• Maya Freelon Asante (soon to be shown in MFA’s ‘Stories that Breathe’ which opens next week at MFA in DC)
• Maren Hassinger
• Martha Jackson Jarvis
• Joyce J. Scott
• Renee Stout

Additional details:

“Material Girls”, Contemporary Black Women Artists, Curated by Michelle Joan Wilkinson, PhD

Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American Culture & History, 830 E. Pratt St., Baltimore, MD 21202

Hours: Wednesday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday, Noon to 5 p.m.
Thursday (June to August), open until 8 p.m.
Sunday Noon to 5 p.m.

Save the date for “Stories that Breathe”. Show opens Friday, 8 April 2011!

Morton Fine Art (MFA) is pleased to present its third *a pop-up project. The exhibition titled Stories that Breathe, features African American figurative narrative artworks by nationally renowned contemporary artists Jules Arthur, Kesha Bruce, Mario Andres Robinson and Maya Freelon Asante. *a pop-up project will be on display from April 8th through May 4th 2011 at Morton Fine Art’s permanent gallery space located at 1781 Florida Ave NW (at 18th & U Sts), Washington, DC 20009. The opening reception will be held on Friday, April 8th from 6 pm – 8 pm.

Images can be previewed online at www.mortonfineart.com and www.apopupproject.com.  Gallery hours are Tues-Saturday 11am-6pm, Sunday 12pm-5pm.

Stories that Breathe is an artistic exploration of African American figurative narratives in a variety of mediums.  The exhibition features contemporary artwork brought alive through the sharing of intimate personal narratives and stories that reflect the greater collective African American experience.  MFA brings *a pop-up project home to the historic Striver’s Section of Adams Morgan, honoring the history of the U St corridor, long recognized as home to a host of African American creative visionaries including Duke Ellington, Madame Lillian Evanti (Lillian Evans Tibbs), Isaac Scott Hathaway and Addison Scurlock to name a few.

Hadieh Shafie on V&A shortlist for Jameel Prize 2011

Hadieh Shafie, '1890', 30"x30"x3", paper, ink, acrylic, printed & handwritten Farsi text

I am very proud to announce that MFA artist Hadieh Shafie has been shortlisted for the Victoria & Albert Museum’s prestigious Jameel Prize 2011.  Nearly 200 nominations for the Jameel Prize 2011 were received and a panel of judges, chaired by V&A Director, Sir Mark Jones, selected the shortlist of 10 artists and designers.  The exhibition of artworks will be on view at the V&A from 21 July to 25 September, 2011. The winner of the Jameel Prize will be announced on 12 September 2011.

Hadieh Shafie (Baltimore, b. Iran) will show two new works, 22500 (2011) and 26000 Pages (2011) which are a continuation of her signature paper scroll series.  Made up of 22,500 and 26,000 strips of paper, each scroll is marked with printed and hand-written Farsi text, then tightly rolled into concentric circled, concealing or revealing different elements. Shafie’s paper scroll works demonstrate a constant element of her work which is the significance of process, repetition and time, all rooted in the influence of Islamic art and craft.

Launched in 2009, the Jameel Prize is an  international art prize for contemporary artists and designers inspired by Islamic traditions of craft and design.  The prize was conceived after the renovation of the V&A’s Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art, which opened in 2006. The gallery is an outstanding presentation of the rich artistic heritage of the Islamic world, and the prize aims to raise awareness of the thriving interaction between contemporary practice and this great historical heritage.  The Jameel Prize 2011 exhibition will embark on an international tour, beginning at the Istitut du Monde Arabe in Paris (France) and then traveling to Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Damascus (Syria), Beiteddine (Lenanon), Sharjah (UAE), Istanbul (Turkey) and Casablanca (Morocco).

Other shortlisted artists include: Noor Ali Chagani, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Bita Ghezelayagh, Babak Golkar, Hayv Kahraman, Aisha Khalid, Rachid Koraichi, Hazem El Mestikawy and Soody Sharifi.

Hadieh Shafie, '12003', 30"x30"x3", paper, ink, acrylic, printed & handwritten Farsi text

Hadieh Shafie, '12003' (detail)

Vonn Sumner – New Paintings & Other Exciting News

I am pleased to announce the arrival of two new paintings, ‘Byzantine’ and ‘Gray Totem’, by artist Vonn Sumner.  Mentored by renowned California painter Wayne Thiebauld, Vonn Sumner had his first museum solo exhibition, “The Other Side of Here”, at the Riverside Art Museum in 2008.  He now gears up for a second museum solo exhibition  at The Phillips Museum of Art in Pennsylvania in 2011.

Vonn Sumner's 'Byzantine', oil on panel, 19.25"x16"

Vonn Sumner's 'Grey Totem', oil on panel, 20"x16"

Influenced by Renaissance art, Vonn Sumner is well known for otherworldly figurative narratives, oftentimes originating in costumed self portraits.  As curator Peter Frank notes, ” the decision to generate the costumes himself…has allowed the artist to burrow much deeper into the eccentricities of this characters and their idiosyncratic inner lives. They are resonant precisely because they turn inwards, rather than project their energies out into an uncaring and voracious contemporary media sphere.”

The Journey of the Magi (1435), by Sassetta

Attached is a slide show of work currently on loan to The Phillips Museum of Art for Vonn Sumner’s September 2011 museum show, which will run concurrently with the artist’s September solo exhibition at MFA!

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