Tawny Chatmon | Artist
While the camera remains her primary tool of communication, the self-taught artist takes a multi-layered approach in her process. She does not restrict herself to following any set of rules and does not subscribe exclusively to traditional photography practices. Her photographs are often digitally intensified by exaggerating the hairstyles of her subjects (who are often her children and other family members), lending them the eyes of someone older and wiser, and elongating their form, drawing inspiration from the Byzantine period to signify importance. Thereafter, she typically combines overlappings of digital collage and illustration. After refining and printing, she frequently experiments with various art practices by hand-embellishing with acrylic paint, 24-karat gold leaf, and materials such as paper, semi-precious stones, glass, and other mixed media. In choosing to frame the achieved iconography in golden antique, repurposed, and contemporary baroque frames, the artist composes a touching counter-narrative that is more than just a photograph but a new, meaningful compositional expression.
Chatmon suggests that our life experiences and memories are largely responsible for who one ultimately becomes and that "what we are exposed to, what we are taught, and even the toys we play with as children" contributes immensely to shaping us into adulthood. A Black woman and mother of three Black children, she is motivated by "leaving something important behind" to the world her children will grow up in while creating imagery that celebrates and honors the beauty of Black childhood and familial bonds while at times addressing the absence and exclusion of the Black body in Western art.
Chatmon is among the eight African American artists featured in the 2022 Venice Biennale exhibition The Afro-Futurist Manifesto: Blackness Reimagined, curated by Myrtis Bedolla of Galerie Myrtis. The exhibit explores the theme of Black life on the continuum of its imagined future presented in the Personal Structures art fair.
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Exhibitions & Awards
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021
What He Left Behind, Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery, Washington, DC, Curator Myrtis Bedolla
If I’m no longer here, I wanted you to know…, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore,
MD, Curator Myrtis Bedolla
2019 – 2020
Inheritance, Fotografiska New York, New York, NY, Curators Grace Noh & Myrtis Bedolla
Fragile, Handle With Care, Piedmont Arts Museum, Martinsville, VA, Curator Bernadette Moore
2019
Deeply Embedded, Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center, North Brentwood, MD
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Spectrum: On Color and Contemporary Art, Museum of Diasporic Art (MOAD), Curator Key Jo Lee, San Francisco, CA
Intertwined: Labor and Technology in Contemporary Textile Art, Florida State University, Curators Keidra Daniels Navaroli and Annie, Tallahassee, FL
There Within Lies the Gospel: Truth, Galerie Myrtis, Curator Myrtis Bedolla, Baltimore, MD
100 Days of Summer, Art Genesis, Curator Mashonda Tifrere, Los Angeles, CA
WATERS OF THE ABYSS: An Intersection of Spirit and Freedom, Baum Gallery at University of Central Arkansas, a Collaboration with Fabiola Jean-Louis, Conway, AR
Too Much Is Just Right, Asheville Art Museum, Curators Marilyn Laufer & Tom Butler, Asheville, NC
2022-23
Afro-Futurist Manifesto: Blackness Reimagined, Personal Structures:
Time, Space, and Existence, Traveling Exhibition, Curator Myrtis Bedolla
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59th Venice Biennale, Venice, IT
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The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, Baltimore, MD
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The James E. Lewis Museum of Art (JELMA), Baltimore, MD
2022
Beyond the Struggle, There is Joy, The Banneker Douglass, Curator Myrtis Bedolla,
Annapolis, MD
Imagine: Celebrating Black Women’s Creativity, Featherstone Center for the Arts, Curator Adrienne L. Childs, Ph.D., Martha’s Vineyard, MA
Activating the Renaissance, The Walters Art Museum, Curator Joaneath Spicer, Baltimore, MD
Picturing Black Girlhood: Moments of Possibility, Curators Scheherazade Tillet, and Zoraida Lopez-Diago, Newark, NJ
Healing Through the Preservation of Our Histories and Our Selves, University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA
2021
Literary Muse, UTA Artist Space, Beverly Hills, CA, Curator Myrtis Bedolla
Beyond the Looking Glass, Artist Space, Beverly Hills, CA, Curator Zuzanna Ciolek
Textures The History and Art of Black Hair, Kent State University Museum, Kent, Ohio, Co-curators Joseph L. Underwood and Tameka Ellington
2020
2020 VISION, New York Academy of Art with Southampton Arts Center, Southampton, NY
Women Heal through Rite and Ritual, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD
Renaissance: Noir, UTA Artist Space, Beverly Hills, CA, Curator Myrtis Bedolla
A Beautiful Struggle: Black Feminist Futurism, Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, MI
2019
Scope International Contemporary Art Fair, Art Basel Miami, FL
Black Face: A Reclamation of Beauty, Power, and Narrative, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD
King Woman, Mashonda Tifrere/Art Lead Her, Urban Zen, NYC
Afrocosmologies: American Reflections, Wadsworth, The Amistad Center for Art & Culture, and the Petrucci Family Foundation, Hartford CT
Building Bridges II: The Politics of Love, Identity and Race II, 13th Havana Biennial, Curators Galeria Carmen Montilla, Havana, Cuba Myrtis Bedolla and Ana Joa
No Language, Julio Fine Arts Gallery, Loyola Univ. Baltimore, MD
Lishui Photo Festival, Lishui, Zhejiang, China
2018
The Art of Blackness, Block 37, Lashun Tines, Chicago, IL
I Met God and she is…, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Joakim von Ditmar & Destinee Ross, New York, NY
Prix de la Photographie Winners Exhibition, Paris, France
China New Picturesque Photography Biennale, Guo Jing, Hauian Jiangsu China
Her Time is Now, Mashonda Tifrere/Art Lead Her, Urban Zen
Scope Art Fair, Miami Basel, Miami, FL, Galerie Myrtis
2017
The Art of Blackness, Block 37, Lashun Tines, Chicago, IL
AWARDS
Photographer of the Year, International Photo Awards 2018, “The Awakening”
People Photographer of the Year, International Photo Awards 2018, “The Awakening”
First Place, International Photo Awards 2018, Professional People/Family, “The Awakening”
First Place, International Photo Awards 2018, Professional Special/Digitally Enhanced, “Indigo”
First Place, Prix de la Photographie 2018, Fine Art/Digitally Enhanced category, “The Awakening”
First Place, Prix de la Photographie 2018, Fine Portraiture/Family category, “The Awakening”
Second Place, Prix de la Photographie 2018, Portraiture category, “The Awakening”
Second Place, Prix de la Photographie 2018, Fine Art category, “The Awakening”
PRIVATE COLLECTORS
Jayz Carter and Beyoncé Knowles Carter
Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz
CCH Pounder
Yoram Roth
Arthur Lewis
Eddie and Sylvia Brown
Cynthia Erivo
Rich Paul
INSTITUTIONS
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art
Microsoft
University of Maryland Global Campus
Remnants / Keep Watch Over Her as if She Were Your Own, 2023
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