Zoë Charlton: Smokey Hallow

About

Zoë Charlton: Smokey Hallow

On View: Friday, January 20th - Saturday, March 18, 2023

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 26 | 6 to 9 pm 

Maryland Art Place is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Baltimore artist Zoë Charlton. Smokey Hallow is a solo exhibition of projected video, sculptures, and the prints that inspired Charlton's new body of artwork. Smokey Hallow is a homage to the former African-American community called Smokey Hollow that was founded in the 1890s in Tallahassee, Florida, the artist’s hometown. Communities like Smokey Hollow were hallow – sacred and communal Black spaces of care– that were (and still are) necessary as people built lives of autonomy, compromise, and solidarity. The video animates a 60” statue of a pregnant woman attributed to the Bangwa in Cameroon. In the projection, the statue journeys across terra icognita, birthing Black communities and landscapes behind her and consuming natural resources in her path. Join us for a reception on Thursday, January 26th between the hours of  6 pm and 9 pm located at 218 West Saratoga St.

Bio

Zoë Charlton makes large scale figure drawings, primarily of women adorned with culturally loaded objects and covered in dense collaged landscapes. Charlton received her MFA degree from the University of Texas at Austin and participated in residencies, including Artpace Residency (TX), McColl Center for Art + Innovation (NC), Ucross Foundation (WY), the Skowhegan School of Painting (ME), and the Patterson Residency at the Creative Alliance (MD). Her work has been included in national and international exhibitions including The Delaware Contemporary (DE), the Harvey B. Gantt Center (NC), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (AR), Studio Museum of Harlem (NY), Contemporary Art Museum (TX), the Zacheta National Gallery of Art (Poland), and Haas & Fischer Gallery (Switzerland).   She is a recipient of a Pollock-Krasner grant (2012) and a Rubys grant (2014). Museum collections include The Phillips Collection (DC), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (AR), Birmingham Museum of Art (AL), and Studio Museum in Harlem (NY). She is a co-founder of Kindred Creative Residence + Agro-ForesT, based in Fletcher, VT.  Kindred CRAFT is a BIPOC LGBTQIA+ led, inclusive collective of farmers, artists, educators, and activists committed to teaching sustainable living through regenerative agriculture, community outreach, and arts education. Charlton is a tenured, Full Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in The School of Art at George Mason University.