Elizabeth Catlett
Sanford Biggers
Iona Rozeal Brown
Patty Chang
Patricia Coffie
Renee Cox
Sam Durant
Lalla Essaydi
Ellen Gallagher
Edgar Cleijne
Kalup Linzy
Kerry James Marshall
Wardell Milan
Wangechi Mutu
Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz
Robert Pruitt
Xaviera Simmons
Shinique Smith
Hank Willis Thomas
Mickalene Thomas
Roberto Visani
Carrie Mae Weems
Isolde Brielmaier
This exhibition features sculptures, prints and drawings by Elizabeth Catlett, exploring her ground-breaking career from the 1960s to the present and her relationship to later generations of contemporary artists in the works by 21 of them. Their works will be on view in conversation with Catlett's share her attention to practice and technique as well as passion for exploring such issues as race, gender, history, memory, politics.
Organized by guest-curator Isolde Brielmaier
The Bronx Museum of the Arts will present Stargazers: Elizabeth
Catlett in Conversation with 21 Contemporary Artists, an exhibition highlighting Elizabeth Catlett’s role
as a pioneering African American female artist and her relationship to later generations of contemporary
artists. On view from January 28 through May 29, 2011, the exhibition will explore her ground-breaking
career from the 1960s to the present through a selection of more than 40 of her prints and sculptures.
Stargazers will also include works by 21 international contemporary artists whose ideas and practices will
be examined in conversation with Catlett’s life and work.
These artists are: Sanford Biggers, iona rozeal
brown, Patty Chang, Patricia Coffie, Renee Cox, Sam Durant, Lalla Essaydi, Ellen Gallagher and Edgar
Cleijne, Kalup Linzy, Kerry James Marshall, Wardell Milan, Wangechi Mutu, Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz,
Robert Pruitt, Xaviera Simmons, Shinique Smith, Hank Willis Thomas, Mickalene Thomas, Roberto
Visani, and Carrie Mae Weems. Organized by the Bronx Museum with guest curator Isolde Brielmaier,
Stargazers will be the first exhibition to frame Catlett’s role within the context of contemporary art
history and to look at her work from a global perspective.
The 21 artists, whose work will be on view in conversation with Catlett’s and many of whom are included
in the Bronx Museum’s collection, share her attention to practice and technique as well as passion for
exploring such issues as race, gender, history, memory, politics. The younger generation featured in the
exhibition includes established and emerging contemporary artists from a range of countries, including
Ghana, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, and Morocco. The works encompass a wide variety of media, such as
ceramics, new media, painting, photography, and sculpture, and date from the early 1990s to the present.
A painter, sculptor, printmaker, teacher, and activist, Elizabeth Catlett was born in 1915 and lives and
works in the United States and Mexico. Her work focuses on African American culture and the ongoing
struggles for equality and international human rights. She received first prize in the 1940 American Negro
Exposition held in Chicago for her graduate thesis at Howard University and was the first African
American recipient of an MFA in sculpture at the University of Iowa. Other notable achievements include
serving as the first female professor of sculpture and the head of the sculpture department at the National
School of Fine Arts, San Carlos, and receiving the International Sculpture Center’s 2003 Lifetime
Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award.
Curator Isolde Brielmaier is a New York City-based independent curator, professor, and writer. Her
recent exhibitions include Signs Taken for Wonders (2009, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York City);
Shinique Smith: Torch Songs (2008, Saltworks Gallery, Atlanta); and Titus Kaphar: Painting Undone
(2008, Red Gallery, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA). She has served as Program
Curator for the 2009 Armory Show and VOLTA NY; co-curator of photo MIAMI 2009; and a Curator of
special exhibitions and programs at ARCOmadrid, the International Contemporary Art Fair of Madrid.
Brielmaier is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art and a Post-Doctoral Mellon Fellow at Vassar
College, as well as Guest Professor at New York University. She received her Ph.D. in art history from Columbia University.
CATALOG
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog titled Stargazers: Elizabeth Catlett in
Conversation with 21 Contemporary Artists. It will feature essays by Brielmaier, curator Franklin Sirman,
and artist Xaviera Simmons, among others.
This exhibition is made possible by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Agnes Gund.
The Bronx Museum will hold an open house to celebrate the opening of Stargazers on Sunday,
February 6, 2011 at 2:00 p.m.
Catlett and artists Sanford Biggers, Renee Cox, and Xaviera Simmons will also take part in a panel
discussion, moderated by Brielmaier, about the exhibition and Catlett’s work as part of the Museum’s
Bronx Talk Series on Friday, April 29, 2011 at 6:00 p.m.
Image: Elizabeth Catlett, Woman Fixing her Hair, 1993, Mahogany and opals, 68.6 x 45.7 x 33 cm. Courtesy Hortense and William A. Mohr Sculpture Purchase Fund, 1993
Press contacts:
Elizabeth Chapman
Resnicow Schroeder Associates 212-671-5159 echapman@resnicowschroeder.com
Lyndsey Barratt
Resnicow Schroeder Associates 212-671-5162 lbarratt@resnicowschroeder.com
The Bronx Museum of the Arts
1040 Grand Concourse at 165th street
Bronx, New York 10456-3999
Hours:
Thursday 11:00am - 6:00pm
Friday 11:00am - 8:00pm
Saturday 11:00am - 6:00pm
Sunday 11:00am - 6:00pm
Monday to Wednesday Closed
Admission:
$5 Adults
$3 Students and Seniors
Free on Fridays
Free for Members and Children under 12