Mobile Art Gallery

Rendition by Zoë Charlton

aBOUT THE EXHIBIT

Several formative experiences have shaped D.C. and Baltimore-based artist Zoë Charlton’s career and inspired her work. Growing up, she was a frequent visitor to her grandmother’s blue house and wooded property in the Florida panhandle, a place that was “dense with growth and large with memory,” where extended family frequently gathered. At Florida State University, one of Charlton’s mentors, the late Ed Love, told her to “make sure you study with people who look like you.” He knew something she didn’t fully understand at the time: by being intentional about who you surround yourself with, you are building a community – a concept that would increasingly become important in her art and in her life. More recently, Charlton purchased from a Baltimore antique store a life-sized African figure from Cameroon and named it “Sib,” because she immediately identified the sculpture as a sibling or as kin. She calls it her doppelgänger.

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These memories and moments have led to Charlton’s latest exhibition, “Rendition,” which addresses cultural identity, race, commodity and cultural tokenism. The exhibit will be on view in CulturalDC’s Mobile Art Gallery from Feb. 8 to March 22. The gallery, which is a renovated shipping container, will be placed outside the main entrance to Union Market, 1309 5th Street, NE.

“My hope is that this installation sparks a conversation about the commercialization of culture and how race and cultural identity play a role in so many aspects of our lives, frequently without us even noticing,” said Charlton. “‘Rendition’ asks viewers to think about how blackness is used to sell everything from clothing and shoes to African sculptures.”

biography

Charlton, who works from studios in both D.C. and Baltimore, has served on the faculty of The American University art department for 16 years, including as chair. She received her MFA degree from the University of Texas at Austin and BFA in painting and drawing from Florida State University. She participated in residencies at Artpace San Antonio, the Skowhegan School of Painting, the Ucross Foundation, the McColl Center for Art + Innovation, and at The Creative Alliance in Baltimore. Her work has been included in national and international group exhibitions including at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Harvey B. Gantt Center, Contemporary Art Museum in Houston, the Studio Museum of Harlem, the Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Poland. Public collections include Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Phillips Collection (DC). She was also an animator for Flat Black Films in Austin, Texas, currently holds a seat on the Maryland State Arts Council and is a co-founder of ‘sindikit, an artist project space in Baltimore.

limited edition print

CulturalDC has commissioned Charlton to create a limited-edition print that will be sold to support the installation. Each print, similar in design to the collage on the gallery wall, will feature a unique element added by the artist. If you are interested in sponsoring Zoë’s exhibit please contact us.