Freedom, Equality, and Citizenship—Harriet Tubman ran for it, Frederick Douglass sanctioned it in his speeches, Benjamin Banneker mapped it in the stars, Thurgood Marshall enforced laws to ensure it, and Lillie May Carroll Jackson and Martin Luther King, Jr. marched for it.
– From curatorial statement written by Myrtis Bedolla, Guest Curator
Exhibiting artist Phylicia Ghee with her installation Notes from the Ancestors: Tools for Edification at The Radical Voice of Blackness Speaks of Resistance and Joy opening reception. This installation uses real herbs and plants that you can smell for a full sensory experience of healing. Image courtesy of Christian Smooth, Smooth House Productions
Guest curated by Myrtis Bedolla of Galerie Myrtis, The Radical Voice of Blackness Speaks of Resistance and Joy presents fine art by seventeen Black Maryland-based artists, including portraits from the Banneker-Douglass Museum's Fine Art Collection, to examine historical and contemporary themes of Black joy and healing created in opposition to and despite oppression. The exhibition will be on display until September 30, 2023. Here are the top four reasons to catch the show before it ends!
Experience Artwork by Black Maryland-Based Artists
This exhibition features artwork by fifteen living Black Maryland-based artists, the likes of which whose work has been featured in TIME Magazine, who are making waves in the art world via social media, who have celebrity buyers, like Alicia Keys, who are McArthur "Genius" Fellows, and more.
Featured artists: Devin Allen, Tawny Chatmon, Wesley Clark, Larry Cook, Oletha DeVane, Edward D. Ghee, Sr., Phylicia Ghee, Jerrell Gibbs, Curlee Holton, Monica Ikegwu, Megan Lewis, Charles Mason, III, Wendel Patrick, Joyce J. Scott, and Chrystal Seawood.
The Banneker-Douglass Museum will house the art exhibition, the Radical Voice of Blackness Speake of Resistance and Joy, through September 2023—image courtesy of Visit Annapolis & Anne Arundel County.
Get Inspired by Multidisciplinary Artwork
Studies suggest that viewing art in museums can increase emotional intelligence, impart greater empathy, and inspire new ideas. This exhibition features 35 works spanning various disciplines, including installations, paintings, photographs, prints, videos, conceptual art, and three-dimensional works.
A second-floor view of Radical Voice of Blackness Speaks of Resistance and Joy
Image courtesy of Visit Annapolis & Anne Arundel County.
Guest Curated by Myrtis Bedolla of Galerie Myrtis
Galerie Myrtis is an emerging blue-chip gallery and art advisory in Baltimore, Maryland, specializing in twentieth and twenty-first-century American art with a focus on work created by African American artists. Myrtis Bedolla is one of two Black women to own an art gallery in Maryland and is the first Black woman-owned art gallery owner to participate in the Venice Biennale (La Biennale di Venezia) exhibition in Italy, one of the most prestigious cultural institutions in the world and art exhibitions in the world for over 120 years.
Guest Curator Myrtis Bedolla of Galerie Myrtis
Image courtesy of Grace Rosselli, “Pandora’s BoxX Project”
Celebrate Black Resistance and Joy
The Radical Voice of Blackness Speaks to Resistance and Joy explores America's fraught history of systemic racism while celebrating the resiliency of a people who have persevered despite social and political devices to suppress them. In the Temporary Gallery, portraits of Benjamin Banneker, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Lillie Jackson Carroll by Hughie Lee-Smith (1915-1999) from BDM's Fine Art Collection and puzzles by Wesley Clark and Chrystal Seawood connect historical and contemporary forms of Black resistance. The left side of the historic Mt. Moriah Church centers Black Joy in conversation with Black Resistance on the right side, with healing at the center.
Watch this video from The Radical Voice of Blackness Speaks of Resistance and Joy opening night reception at Banneker-Douglass Museum on November 10, 2022—video courtesy of the Banneker-Douglass Museum.
To explore more Black History throughout Anne Arundel County, visit the Black History 365 website.
