Risk-Taking Women in the Arts: Tawny Chatmon & Myrtis Bedolla

Join us for the second installment of the Risk-Taking Women in the Arts series featuring proprietor and founder of Galerie Myrtis, Dr. Myrtis Bedolla, in conversation with photography-based artist, Tawny Chatmon. Hear directly from the speakers as they discuss topics of entrepreneurship and fearlessness. Learn about their lived experiences in the art world, their professional connection as a gallery owner and a working artist, and the evolution of Chatmon’s work. An open reception will immediately follow the program.

REGISTER FOR RISK-TAKING WOMEN IN THE ARTS

Schedule

10 a.m.–9 p.m. – Free admission to Making Her Mark with timed-entry passes
6 p.m. – Auditorium doors open
6:30 p.m. – Discussion begins
7:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m. – Open reception in Fox Court

 

This event is inspired by the exhibition Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400–1800. Admission to Making Her Mark is free with timed entry for all visitors on Thursday, November 9.

RESERVE FREE PASSES TO MAKING HER MARK

Tawny Chatmon

Tawny Chatmon is a photography-based artist residing in Maryland. Her journey took a transformative turn in 2010 when she began documenting her father’s battle with cancer, unknowingly capturing the moments leading to his untimely passing. This experience reshaped her perspective, steering her away from photography as a commercial pursuit and towards a higher vocation.

While the camera remains her primary tool, the self-taught artist takes a multi-layered approach to her process. She does not restrict herself to any set of rules and does not subscribe exclusively to traditional photography practices. Mostly featuring her family as subjects, she transforms them by exaggerating their hairstyles and elongating their forms, drawing inspiration from the Byzantine period. Her process incorporates photography, digital collage, and hand-embellishment with acrylic paint, 24-karat gold leaf, and an array of materials, including semi-precious stones and other mixed media.

Chatmon believes life experiences and exposure shape who we become. As a Black woman and mother of three children, she aims to leave behind a significant legacy of celebrating the beauty of Black childhood and family bonds through her art while, at times, addressing the absence of Black bodies in Western art.

Myrtis Bedolla

Dr. Myrtis Bedolla is both the proprietor and the visionary founder of Galerie Myrtis, an emerging blue-chip gallery specializing in work created by African American and African Diasporic artists. Bedolla’s career spans over three decades as a gallerist, art advisor, and curator.

In 2023, Bedolla’s curatorial work and scholarly contributions earned her an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She also received a Governor’s Citation from Governor Wes Moore, underscoring her profound influence in the art and culture realm and establishing her as a distinguished curator and scholar.

In 2022, she made history by becoming the inaugural African American curator to the award-winning exhibition The Afro-Futurist Manifesto: Reimagining Blackness, showcased during the 59th Venice Biennale as part of the European Cultural Centre’s Personal Structures art fair. She also partnered with Christies’ Auction House to bring equity and inclusion to the art world.

Image of Myrtis Bedolla courtesy of photographer Grace Roselli, “Pandora’s BoxX Project.”

This program is sponsored by the Deborah Buck Foundation in memory of Sue Ellen Dalsemer, an organization supporting institutions that are actively working to reverse the marginalization of women in the Fine Arts.