NANETTE CARTER (b. 1954)

An artist who has been exhibiting her work nationally and internationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions since the mid-1970s, Nanette Carter creates abstract collages expressive of her sensitivity to injustice and humanity in the context of contemporary life and her responses to the drama of nature. Her shaped works, produced in multimedia on Mylar since 1997, are evocative of concepts in the history of abstract art and reflect the African American abstract art tradition, exemplified in the works of Alma Thomas, Sam Gilliam, William T. Williams, Howardena Pindell, Romare Bearden, and Alvin Loving Jr. In fact, Loving (1935–2005) was Carter’s mentor. A close friend, he inspired her in his view of invention in art as the result of process, in a manner akin to how jazz musicians create something new by riffing off of a melody.

In her art, Carter combines rectilinear structures with animated gestures, forming constructions that recall the lineage of African American quilt-making, while drawing on jazz, Japanese prints, Russian Constructivism, Abstract Expressionism, and other sources. She describes herself as a “builder, fascinated by the act of bringing pieces together to create a work of art,” while noting that “building is one of civilizations’ oldest endeavors.” In 2013 she began her Cantilevered series, metaphorically using an architectural term referring to structures anchored by a plinth at one end that extend horizontally—almost defying gravity—as a paradigm for the balancing act in all our lives in the twenty-first century. Her series, The Weight, begun in 2015, speaks to the weight “compounded on us as we reflect on our history and aspire to move forward to better ourselves.”

A retired professor of art at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn (2001 – 2021), Carter was born in Columbus, Ohio, and grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, where her father was the city’s first Black mayor, and her mother was a vice principal in Paterson, New Jersey and a dance teacher. While a student at Oberlin College, Ohio, Carter spent her junior year in Perugia, Italy, studying at the Accademia belle Arti and showing her work at Università per Stranieri. While abroad, she traveled widely, in Europe as well as in Africa. Majoring in art history and studio art, she graduated from Oberlin in 1976. That year she had her first solo show of drawings and prints at Oberlin, and her work was included in a tour organized by the National Association of Fine Arts Small Colleges. Carter continued to study art at Pratt, where she received her MFA in 1978. She was featured in several exhibitions in 1978, including the 25th Annual Juried Exhibition, which was held at the Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, and curated by photographer Hans Namuth; Women Celebrate Women, held at the Nassau County Museum, Hempstead, New York; and a three-artist show, including the work of Rosalind Letcher and Loving, held at the Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York. In an article in Newsday on the Benson show by Amei Wallach, Loving and Carter were interviewed. Loving called Carter “a great artist,” noting that he had “a vested interest in having her work seen by as many people as possible.” Carter stated to Wallach: “I think my work is very rhythmical and sensitive to forms,” commenting that she was “dealing with pattern . . . in a very African way, because of rhythm, because of line.” Wallach observed in Carter’s “delicate prints of undulating white forms growing out of gray and black dots and splotches” a quality like the syncopated jazz patterns in the work of Stuart Davis, along with “infinite depth” that Carter had been “picking up from Loving.”¹ In 1979 Carter was included in Eastville Artists, a show curated by Loving that was held at Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton. In a review in the New York Times, Helen Harrison gave recognition to woodcuts in Carter’s Syncopated Scapes series, noting that in these works, Carter used of a method of color gradation frequently seen in Japanese prints, while peppering “her compositions with bright and shining accents of color that suggest fragments of sound.”²

From 1978 to 1987, Carter taught printmaking and drawing at Dwight-Englewood School, Englewood, New Jersey, where she completed a mural commission in 1980. During the 1980s, her work was featured in exhibitions in New York and in several other cities, receiving much recognition. When her collages and prints were included in a six-artist show at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1981, Theodore F. Wolff wrote in a review that Carter’s work exemplified the major attribute of the show, its “openness of spirit.” He described her contribution as consisting of “muted, highly sophisticated works in which narrow color strips play dramatically against softly textured (or plain) backgrounds,” producing an effect “of a contained explosion, with the energy held in check or released by extremely subtle adjustments of the length, placement, color, or texture of the narrow strips of collage material.”³ During the decade, Carter had solo shows at Ericson Gallery, New York (1983), N’Namdi Gallery, Detroit (1984, 1986), Cinque Gallery, New York (1985), Montclair Art Museum (1988), and N’Namdi Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan (1989). Her group shows included a national touring exhibition of prints and drawings, organized by the Museum of the National Center for Afro-American Artists, Roxbury, Massachusetts; Voicing Expressing What Is: Action Against Racism (1980) and Action Against Racism (1981), both held at Westbeth Gallery, New York; Biennial Print Exhibition, curated by Gene Baro, Brooklyn Museum (1981); Black Achievement in the Arts, Equitable Life Assurance, New York (1982); the Women’s Art Exhibit, Purdue University, Fort Wayne, Indiana (1984); Celebration: Eight Afro-American Artists, curated by Romare Bearden, Henry Street Settlement; Louis Abrons Arts for Living Center, New York (1984); Collage—The State of the Art, Bergen Museum of Art and Science, Paramus, New Jersey (1985); Expressions: Black Art ’88, National Coalition of 100 Black Women Inc., Stamford, Connecticut (1988); and Impressions: Our World, Flushing Center, Queens, New York, curated by Frances Hynes (1989). Carter was featured in a show at McIntosh Gallery, Atlanta, with six other artists including Jacob Lawrence in 1987.

From 1990 to the present, Carter has continually evolved in her work and participated actively in gallery and museum exhibitions. Her work has been featured in at least one solo show each year, including exhibitions at the Fine Arts Gallery, Long Island University, Southampton (1991); Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania (1992); Rathbone Gallery, The Sage Colleges, Albany, New York (1997); Conkling Gallery, Minnesota State University (2001); President’s Gallery, Pratt Institute (2005); Gallery Ami & Kanoko, Osaka, Japan (2016, 2019); Alessandro Berni Gallery, Perugia, Italy (2017); and Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba (2018). She has been included in numerous group shows, in museums, universities, corporations, and cutting-edge galleries. Of a show of her Fire Water series at June Kelly Gallery, New York (1991), Ruth Bass noted in Artnews, that her works in their evocations of trees, branches, and rocks interacting with odd intrusive shapes that seemed to allude to flames or bodies of water produced “striking, evocative landscapes [that] exist at some mysterious junction between the world of dreams, mythology, and folklore and the realm of everyday experience.”⁴ In 1996 Carter was represented in the traveling exhibition, Bearing Witness: Contemporary Works by African American Women Artists, curated by Jontyle Theresa Robinson, which featured twenty-four artists including Pindell,  Barbara Chase Riboud, Faith Ringgold, Alison Saar, Betty Saar, and Carrie Mae Weems. Among the authors of essays in accompanying catalogue were Maya Angelou and Lowery Stokes Sims. In her essay in the catalogue, Robinson described works by Carter from her Window View-Scapeology series, commenting: “There is harmony and discord in nature, and it is these contrasts that [Carter] puts on canvas and into prints. She shows human attempts to control nature and the powerful manner in which it thwarts their desires.”⁵ Carter’s exhibition, Slightly Off Keel, held at June Kelly Gallery in 2000, was accompanied by a catalogue with an essay by Karen Wilkin, who observed that in “fragments that may evoke familiar aspects of the natural world,” the associations are endless. She commented that Carter’s “work picks up speed and rushes silently along in purely pictorial terms, tipping us slightly off balance in a pleasurable way, but reminding us to stay alert and be ready for the unexpected.”⁶

In the early 2000s, Carter created two series. In her Picante (saucy) works, she focused on the body and genitalia. When she discovered there was no clinical name for the fluid emitted by women during lovemaking,  she decided to name the fluid Aqueous. With Carter’s Aqueous series, the biomorphic shapes allude to the women’s genitalia; alluding to aquatic movement and sensuality. When the series was shown in 2007 at N’Namdi Gallery, New York, it was accompanied by a catalogue with an essay by Leslie King-Hammond, who remarked that in her abstract Mylar paintings and installations, Carter explored “the questions so adroitly poised by the Feminist critic Arlene Raven regarding the issues of the internal, female body and ‘a model of rhythms and relationships upon which a society can be built.’”⁷ Jonathan Goodman commended Carter’s technical skill as a collagist and the fluency in works with “expressionist surfaces, active with painted and printed with gestural marks.” He stated: “her sensuous idiom makes new use of Abstract Expressionist traditions.”⁸ In 2007 Carter was chosen by the US State Department to represent the nation in the International Women’s Art Festival in Aleppo, Syria. The State Department also organized an exhibition of her work at the Kozah Gallery, Damascus, Syria.

With Carter’s earlier works, she often used “Scape” metaphorically to describe her work because the term, denoting representation over subject matter, has allowed her to weave a range of political themes and concepts into her art, while referring to land, sky, and outer space. She has even called herself a “scapeologist.” At times she has joined two or more scapes onto a single picture plane, while improvising to create new worlds. In her series, Bouquet for Loving (begun about 2009), Carter paid homage to her mentor. She stated that the works were “a benevolent offering of not your run-of-the-mill vegetation, but rather a creation from my mind’s eye.”⁹

Carter’s Cantilevered series is elegant, precise, and open, embracing the forms and concepts that she has explored over the course of her career. When works from the series were featured in An Act of Balance, an exhibition in 2018 at Skoto Gallery, New York, Jonathan Goodman wrote that Carter challenged “the viewer to make sense of an art that is self-sufficient and visually poised.”¹⁰ In a review, Daniel Gauss described the way that in the series “one gets a sense that in order for the bulky, accumulated bunch of things not to fall over one must engage in a rigorous, continual balancing act. He stated that, in the series, Carter seems to ask us what the invisible sources of strength might be in our own lives, while posing the question of whether there is sufficient enough cantilever for any one or group that is suffering to “endure and rise above and then become the agent for change.”¹¹ Carter’s latest series, venturing into Afro-Futurism, titled Afro-Sentinels, features a sequence of vertical thin and robust forms. Sentinels are guardians meant to watch out for potential disturbances, and in this case to protect people of color from injustices and harm.

In 2014 Carter was included in the group exhibition, African-American Artists & Abstraction, held at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, along with Senga Nengudi, Ben Jones, Mel Edwards, Willie Cole, Pindell, Bill Hutson, and Victor Davidson. In 2017 Carter was featured in Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction: 1960s to Today, a show featuring African American women artists, organized by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City. The show traveled to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. In 2021, Carter was the program curator for New York’s Art Students League, and was a participant there in the exhibition, Creating Community: Cinque Gallery Artists, held May 3–July 4, 2021. She was also included in the Parrish Museum’s exhibition, Affinities for Abstraction: Women Artists on Eastern Long Island, 1950–2020, curated by Dr. Alicia Longwell.

Carter has received many grants, fellowships, and awards including Anonymous Was a Woman, Gottlieb Foundation, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, The Jerome Foundation, and National Endowment for the Arts. Carter continues to evolve a body of work that broadens and deepens in its thematic, technical, and humanist dimensions.

Carter’s work is represented in many private and public collections, including American Express, Minneapolis, Minnesota; ARCO, Philadelphia; AT&T, Florida, New Jersey; Bellevue Hospital, New York; Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, New Jersey; The Bob Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, New York; The Brandy Wine Workshop Collection, Philadelphia; Broadway Savings and Loans, Los Angeles; The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; Charles H. Wright Museum, Detroit; CIGNA, Philadelphia; Cochran Foundation, LaGrange, Georgia; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio; Curtis and Edison Law Firm, Detroit; Deloitte Touche LLP, Parsippany, New Jersey; Dwight Englewood School, Englewood, New Jersey; Ferguson Development, LLC, Lansing, Michigan; First Independence National Bank, Detroit; General Electric, Fairfield, Connecticut; IBM, Stamford, Connecticut; Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, New Jersey; Huntington Museum, Huntington, West Virginia; Johnson & Johnson, Inc., New Brunswick, New Jersey; Lang Communications, Randolph, Vermont; The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Lower East Side Printshop, Inc., New York; Lucent Technologies, Warren and Basking Ridge, New Jersey; Merck Pharmaceutical Co., Philadelphia; Magic Johnson Enterprises, Los Angeles; McKinsey & Co., New York; The Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey; Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, New York; Motown Corp. L.P., Los Angeles; Mott-Warsh Foundation, Flint, Michigan; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba; National Steel Corp., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Nedd Hotel Collections, London, England; The Newark Museum, New Jersey; Nextel Corp., Los Angeles; Nissho Iwai American Corporation, New York; The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; PepsiCo, New York; Perez Museum, Miami; Planned Parenthood, New York; Rutgers University School of Graduate Management, Newark; Mudd Center, Oberlin College Library, Oberlin, Ohio; Paul R. Jones Initiative, University Delaware, Newark, Delaware; Herbert F. Johnson Art Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island; The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey; Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri; Salomon Brothers, New York; Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York; The United States Embassy, Lome, Togo; Sims Varner and Associates, Detroit, Michigan; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, New York; State Farm Insurance, West Lake, California; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Times Mirror, New York; The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama; The University Museum, University of Delaware, Newark; U.S.A.A., San Antonio, Texas; University of Maryland David C. Driskell Center, College Park, Maryland; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.

Lisa Peters, Ph.D.

1 Amei Wallach, “Black Artists Cross the ‘Moat,’” Newsday, May 28, 1978, p. A3.
2 Helen A. Harrison, “The Eastville Story,” New York Times, February 25, 1979, p. LI12.
3 Theodore F. Wolff, “Harlem’s Studio Museum: The Tricky Business of Identifying New Talent,” Christian Science Monitor, February 2, 1981, p. 14.
4 R[uth] B[ass], “Nanette Carter,” Artnews 90 (February 1991), p. 140.
5 Jontyle Theresa Robinson, “Passages: A Curatorial Viewpoint,” in Bearing Witness: Contemporary Works by  African American Women Artists, exh. cat. (Spelman College and Rizzoli International, 1996). p. 33.
6 Karen Wilkin, Nanette Carter: Slightly Off Keel, exh cat. (New York: June Kelly Gallery, 2000), p. 3.
7 Leslie King-Hammond, Aqueous: Nanette Carter, exh. cat. (New York: G. R. Nambi Gallery, 2006), p. 5.
8 Jonathan Goodman, “Nanette Carter at G. R. N’Namdi,” Art in America (January 2007), pp. 139–40.
9 Nanette Carter, “On Using Scapes,” Black Renaissance Noire (Institute of African-American Affairs, New York University) 9 (2009), pp. 88–95.
10 Jonathan Goodman, “Nanette Carter: An Act of Balance,” Brooklyn Rail (February 2018).
11 Daniel Gauss, “An Act of Balance: Nanette Carter at Skoto Gallery, Manhattan,” Wall Street International (March 9, 2018), p. 2.

© Berry Campbell, New York

CV
1978 - Pratt Institute of Art, New York, MFA
1976 - Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, BA
1975 - Accademia Belle Arti, Perugia, Italy

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, 2025.
Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey, Nanette Carter: A Question of Balance, 2024-2025.
Berry Campbell, New York, 2024.
Berry Campbell, New York, Shape Shifting, 2022.
Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, New Jersey, Forms Follow Function: The Art of Nanette Carter, 2022.
Gallery Ami Kanoko, Osaka, Japan, 2019.
Gallery Hatoba, Kyoto, Japan, 2019.
Esperanza en Armonia, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba, 2018.
Skoto Gallery, New York, An Act of Balance, 2018.
Alessandro Berni Gallery, Perugia, Italy, Nanette Carter, 2017.
Gallery Ami Kanoko, Osaka, Japan, Nanette Carter, 2014.
N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit, Michigan, Constructions: Textural Collages, 2014.
N’Namdi Contemporary, Miami, Florida, In the Garden: The Animist, 2012.
R. N’Namdi Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, Aqueous, 2008.
Kozah Art Gallery, Damascus, Syria, Nanette Carter, 2007.
N’Namdi Gallery, New York, Aqueous, 2006.
Huntington Museum of Art, West Virginia, Walter Gropius Visiting Artist Series, 2006.
N’Namdi Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, Fluid Borders, 2005.
President’s Gallery, Pratt Institute of Art, Brooklyn, New York, Nanette Carter, 2005.
Swartley Gallery, Dwight-Englewood School, Englewood, New Jersey, Fluid Borders, 2005.
June Kelly Gallery, New York, Conceptual Abstractions, 2004.
Noel Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina, Conceptual Abstractions, 2004.
Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Transfluent Lines, 2003.
R. N’Namdi Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, Motion Cleansing, 2002.
OGT Gallery, New York, Picante: Erotic Drawings, 2002.
Conkling Gallery, Minnesota State University, Mankato, Nanette Carter: Recent Work, 2001.
Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Statement: Prints and Paintings, 2001.
June Kelly Gallery, New York, Slightly Off Keel, 2000.
Barbara Greene Fine Art, New York, Nanette Carter, 2000.
Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Slightly Off Keel, 1999.
N’Namdi Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan, Slightly Off Keel, 1999.
R. N’Namdi Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, Point-Counterpoint to Slightly Off Keel, 1999.
Daura Gallery, University of Lynchburg, Virginia, Segments, 1998.
Rathbone Gallery, The Sage Colleges, Albany, New York, New Works, 1997.
Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Recent Works on Mylar, 1997.
June Kelly Gallery, New York, Point-Counterpoint, 1997.
Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina, Nature’s Mystique: Paintings and Monotypes, 1997.
R. N’Namdi Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan, Paintings, 1996.
Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Window View-Scapeology, 1995.
Alitash Kebede Gallery, Los Angeles, California, Window View-Scapeology, 1995.
June Kelly Gallery, New York, Recent Work, 1994.
Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Collaged Canvases, 1993.
N’Namdi Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, Paintings and Prints, 1992.
R. N’Namdi Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan, Paintings, 1992.
Alitash Kebede Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1992.
R. N’Namdi Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan, Paintings, 1992.
Alitash Kebede Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1992.
R. N’Namdi Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, Paintings and Prints, 1992.
Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Nature’s Themes, 1992.
Fine Arts Gallery, Long Island University, Southampton, New York, Wall Reliefs-Installation 1991.
Westminster Gallery, Bloomfield College, New Jersey, Fire and Water, 1991.
June Kelly Gallery, New York, Oil Pastels on Canvas, 1990.
Jersey City Museum, New Jersey, Meet the Artist, 1990.
R. N’Namdi Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan, Recent Works, 1989.
Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey, Divergencies, 1988.
R. N’Namdi Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, Illumination, 1986.
Cinque Gallery, New York, Illumination, 1985.
R. N’Namdi Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, Collages, 1984.
Ericson Gallery, New York, Recent Works, 1983.
Pratt Gallery, Pratt Institute of Art, Brooklyn, New York, Thesis Exhibition, 1978.
Gallery Between the Domes, Oberlin College, Ohio, Prints and Drawings, 1976.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey, Century: 100 Years of Black Art at MAM, 2024.
The Church, Sag Harbor, Master Impressions: Artists and Printers on the South Fork (1965-2010), 2024.
Berry Campbell, New York, Perseverance, 2024.
Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, Artists Choose Parrish, 2023.
Long Island Museum, Stony Brook, New York, Creative Haven: Black Artists of Sag Harbor, 2023.
The Church, Sag Harbor, New York, Return to a Place By the Sea, 2023.
Ashawagh Hall, East Hampton, New York, Community, 2022. (Organized by Berry Campbell)
Featherstone Center For the Arts, Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts, Imagine: Celebrating Black Female Creativity, 2022.
Hudson River Museum, New York, Order/Reorder: Experiments with Collection, 2022.
Towson University, Maryland, Nanette Carter/Robert Straight: Fragments, Layers, Combinations, 2022.
James Madison University, Duke Gallery of Fine Art, Harrisonburg, Virginia, Exuberance: Dialogues in African American Abstract Painting, 2021.
Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, Affinities for Abstraction: Women Artists on Eastern Long Island: 1950-2020, 2021.
Fridman Gallery, Beacon, New York, Land Escape, 2021.
Art Students League, New York, Creating Community: Cinque Gallery Artists, 2021.
Museum of Contemporary Art Long Island, Patchogue, New York, Generations of Color, 2021.
Fridman Gallery, New York, Young Artists: One, 2020.
Skoto Gallery, New York, Group Show, 2020.
Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri, The Shape of Abstraction: The Thelma and Bert Ollie Memorial Art Collection,
2019.
Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, Saint Petersburg, Virginia, Ronald Walton & Friends, 2019.
The Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum, Miami, Florida, Cut: Abstraction in the U.S. From 1970s to the Present,
2019.
Skoto Gallery, New York, Group Show, 2019.
Museum of Art - DeLand, Florida, African American: We Too Dream, 2019.
New York Studio School, New York, Known: Unknown, 2018.
Skoto Gallery, New York, 2018.
East Hawaii Cultural Center, Hilo, Hawaii, Global Metaphysics of Abstract Painters/Performance, 2018.
Sotheby’s International Realty, New York, Collage As Matter, 11th Ave, 2018.
The Columbus Museum, Georgia, Dancing on the Edge of the Abyss, 2018.
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today, 2017. (Traveling Exhibition: National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; Museum
of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida.)
Center for the Arts Gallery, Towson University, Towson, Maryland, Printfest: Modern, Contemporary and Future Masters, 2017.
Nedd Hotel Collection, London, England, Women From the Collection, 2017.
Marietta College, Ohio, I Embody......, 2017.
Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum, California State University, San Bernardino, California, Enduring in Vision and Linked in Tradition, 2017.
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, Circa 1970, 2016.
University Museum at the University of Delaware State, Newark, Delaware, Beyond Borders: Bill Hutson and Friends, 2016.
Gallery Nine 5, New York, We may be through with the past…, 2016.
American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, Invitational Exhibition of Visual Artists, 2016. (Curated by Souhad Rafey)
New Door Creative Gallery, Baltimore, Changing The Subject: The Women Artists of the Experimental Printmaking Institute, 2016.
The Black Archives, History and Research Foundation, Miami, Visions of Our 44th President, 2016.
Bishop Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, Bridging the Gap, 2016.
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, Fine Arts Faculty Exhibition I: Sublime Resonance, 2016.
Re:find Gallery, Easton, Pennsylvania, Experimental Printmaking Institute, 2015.
N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Miami, 2015.
The People’s Garden, Brooklyn, New York, Paintings in Trees, 2015.
National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba, African American Artists and Abstraction, 2014.
Winston-Salem State Museum, North Carolina, Emme Ya: Women From the Permanent Collection, 2014.
Shiva Gallery, John Jay College, New York, Women Call for Peace, 2013.
Walton Gallery, Petersburg, Virginia, Ladies First, 2013.
N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit, Michigan, 50 Years of Abstraction, 2013.
The Florissant Valley Contemporary Art Gallery, St. Louis Community College, St. Louis, Missouri, Nanette Carter and Howardena Pindell, 2013.
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, Drawing Democracies, 2013. (Curated by Nanette Carter)
Charles H. Wright Museum, Detroit, Michigan, Visions of Our 44th President, 2012.
Southampton Cultural Center, New York, Visual Heritage III, 2012.
N’Namdi Contemporary, Miami, Florida, 2012.
Schafler Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, Fine Arts Faculty Exhibition, 2012.
Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York, The Chemistry of Color, 2011.
Harvey B. Gantt Center of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina, Beyond Bearden, 2011.
Ashawagh Hall, East Hampton, New York, Invitational, 2011.
School of Visual Arts, New York, The Art of Giving Back, United Negro College Fund, 2011.
Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina, The Chemistry of Color, 2010.
N’Namdi Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, 2010.
Solar Gallery, East Hampton, New York, Mediums, 2010.
N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit, Michigan, 2010.
Essie Green Gallery, New York, 2010.
Schafler Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, Fine Arts Faculty Show, 2010.
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, Permanent Collection, 2009.
Ceres Gallery, New York, Ornery Abstraction, 2008.
Henry Street Settlement House, New York, In Context: The Language of Abstraction Continues, 2008.
Gallery Bravura, Brasiliera and Bellas Artes University Gallery, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2008.
Oakland University Gallery, Rochester, Michigan, N’Namdi Collection, 2008.
University Museum, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, Discursive Acts, 2008.
The Parrish Gallery, Washington, DC, Friends of Herbert Gentry, 2008.
Sharon Simmons Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, 2008.
Schafler Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, Fine Arts Faculty Exhibition, 2008.
Walking Tall Gallery, East Hampton, New York, Summer Show, 2008.
R. N’Namdi Gallery, New York, Forms of Abstraction, 2007.
R. N’Namdi Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, Forms of Abstraction, 2007.
LePont Gallery, Aleppo, Syria, International Women’s Art Festival, 2007.
Louisiana State Museum, Baton Rouge, Living With Art: Collection of Alitash Kebede, 2007.
Los Angeles African American Museum, California, 2007.
The Bermuda National Gallery, Hamilton, Bermuda, Between Two Worlds, 2007.
Walking Tall Gallery, East Hampton, New York, Summer Show, 2007.
New York State Museum, Albany, New York, Driven to Abstraction, 2006.
The Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey, African-American Works from the Collection, 2006.
Art in the Atrium, Morristown, New Jersey, That’s a Whole “Notha Story,” 2006.
The Noyes Museum of Art, Oceanville, New Jersey, Different Ways of Seeing: The Expanding World of Abstraction, 2005.
Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Chemistry of Color: African-American Artists in Philadelphia, 1970-1990, from the Sorgenti Collection, 2005.
Lambert Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, Spectrum Palette, 2005.
Schafler Gallery, Pratt Institute of Art, Brooklyn, New York, Crossing Disciplines: Drawing, 2005.
Aljira Gallery, Newark, New Jersey, African-American Printmakers: The Legacy Continues, 2005.
The University Museum, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, A Century of African-American Art, The Paul Jones Collection, 2004.
Aronson Galleries, Parsons School of Design, New York, Creating Their Own Image: A History of Afro-American Women Artists, 2004.
Pratt Institute of Art, Brooklyn, New York, Faculty Show, 2004.
Lambert Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, Global Vision, 2004.
Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University, North Carolina, Vivacious II!, 2004.
R. N’Namdi Gallery, New York, Forms of Abstraction, 2004.
Rongio Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, Allu’sion, 2004.
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Layers of Meaning: Collage and Abstraction in the Late 20th Century, 2003.
OGT Gallery, New York, For Love and Peace of Mind, 2003. (Curated by Nanette Carter)
Jack Tilton/Anna Kustera Gallery, New York, No Greater Love, Abstraction, 2002.
Exhibit A Gallery, New York, Beauty, 2002.
Eclectic Connection Fine Art Gallery, Summit, New Jersey, Spotlight on African American Art, 2002.
Sugar Hill Art Center, New York, Six American Masters, 2002.
Pfizer Incorporated, New York, 2002.
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, Fine Arts Faculty Exhibition, 2002.
Barbara Greene Fine Art, New York, Somos Simpatico, 2001.
Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Arkansas, Collector’s Show, 2000.
Rockland Center for the Arts, West Nyack, New York, African-American Art at 2000, 2000.
Krest Center Gallery, Concordia College, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Organic. Synthetic. Physic., 2000.
Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island, Painterly Prints, 2000. (Curated by Claude Elliott)
Skylight Gallery, Thunder at the Cathedral, 1999. (Curated by Brenda Branch)
Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation’s Center for Art and Culture, Brooklyn, New York, 1999.
The National Arts Club, New York, Women Artists in Celebration of Lois Mailou Jones, 1999. (Curated by Julia Hotton)
Rathbone Gallery, The Sage College, Albany, New York, A Place By The Sea, 1999.
Christiane Nienaber Contemporary Art, New York, A Place By The Sea, 1999.
Arlene Bujese Gallery, East Hampton, New York, A Place By The Sea, 1999.
Rush Arts Gallery, New York, Entitled: Black Women Artists, 1999. (Curated by Nanette Carter)
Christiane Nienaber Contemporary Art, New York, 1999.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, Black New York Artists of the 20th Century: Selections from the Schomburg Center Collection, 1999.
The George D. and Harriet W. Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, Beyond the Veil: The Art of African American Artists at Century’s End, 1998.
Alitash Kebede Contemporary Art in association with Louise Ross Gallery, New York, New York Eight, 1998.
Jonkonnu Gallery, Sag Harbor, New York, Breadth and Scope, 1998.
Nabisco, East Hanover, New Jersey, Seeing Red, 1998.
The Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island, One Voice, Many Visions: Works by African-American Artists, 1998.
Elise Goodheart Gallery, Sag Harbor, New York, Creations, 1998.
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, The Centennial Open, 1998.
La Mama Galleria, New York, Transferring Culture: Work from the Lower East Side Printshop 1995-1997, 1997. (Curated by Sarah M. Lowe)
Rush Arts Gallery, New York, 1997.
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, Recent Acquisitions, 1996.
Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia, Bearing Witness: Contemporary Works by African American Women Artists, 1996. (Traveling exhibition: Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana; Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, Florida; The Columbus Museum, Georgia; African American Museum, Dallas, Texas; Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, Minnesota and the Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, Kansas.)
Cinque Gallery, New York, Unique Editions: The Process, 1996.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania in collaboration with Sande Webster Gallery, Pennsylvania, African American Printmakers: Three Decades of Excellence, 1996.
Sleeth Gallery, Wesleyan College, Buckhannon, West Virginia, Color Coded: Abstraction and Identity in Contemporary Painting, 1996. (Curated by Gerard Brown)
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pennsylvania, Women Artists of Color, 1996.
Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, Collecting African American Art, 1996.
Jazz Y Son, an invitational and juried exhibition of recent work by Pratt Alumni of African and Latino descent, guest juror, Claudine Brown, 1995.
Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, National African American Museum Project, 1995.
The Rockland Center for the Arts, West Nyack, New York, African-American Printmaking: 1838 to the Present, 1995.
Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania, African-American Printmakers: WPA to the Present, 1995. (Co-curated by Michael Murphy and Sande Webster)
Skoto Gallery, New York, Editions: Contemporary International Printmakers, 1995. (Curated by Carl E. Hazelwood)
Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art, Utica, New York, 1995.
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, 1995.
Lehman College Art Gallery organized for Krasdale Foods Art Gallery, Bronx, New York, Empowerment: The Art of African American Artists, 1994.
Merrill Lynch, Somerset, New Jersey, 1994.
Ashawagh Hall, East Hampton, New York, 1994.
Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island, 1994.
Bloomfield College, Bloomfield, New Jersey, Anniversary: Westminster Gallery Retrospective, 1994.
Robert Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop: Artists of Color and Print Portfolio, 1993-95. (Traveling Exhibition)
Paine Webber Art Gallery, New York, The Studio Museum in Harlem: 25 Years of African-American Art, 1993.
Associated American Artists, New York, Monotypes/Monoprints, 1993.
Art Initiatives, New York, Incidence of Passage, 1993.
A Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, New Jersey, Aljira, 1993.
University Gallery Fine Arts, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, Jazz Impressions, 1993. (Curated by Pam Tills)
Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Multiple Dialogues: Expressions in Abstraction, 1993. (Curated by A.M. Weaver)
The City College of New York, 1993.
The Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware, 1993.
The Unitarian Church, Montclair, New Jersey, Collectors’ Choice: Celebrating Diversity, 1993.
The Gallery at Bristol-Myers Squibb, curated by Melvin Edwards, Princeton, New Jersey, The Expanding Circle: A Selection of African American Art, 1992.
The Gallery at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, New Jersey, Master Prints from the Rutgers Center for Innovative Printmaking: The First 5 Years, 1992.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, Presswork-The Art of Women Printmakers, 1992.
The Noyes Museum of Art, Oceanville, New Jersey, Points of the Compass, 1992.
(Curated by A.M. Weaver)
Salena Gallery, Long Island University, Brooklyn, New York, Just Beyond Relief: An Exhibition of Sculpture, 1992.
Art House Odeon Gallery, Sag Harbor, New York, Identities, 1992. (Curated by Jennifer Cross)
Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island University, Brookville, New York, 1992.
Ben Shahn Gallery, Paterson State College, Wayne, New Jersey, 1992.
Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, Monotypes, 1991.
Usdan Gallery, Bennington College, Vermont, Triangle Artist Workshop 10th Anniversary, 1991.
The Riffe Gallery, Ohio Arts Council, Columbus, Ohio, In Full Effect, 1991.
New Visions Gallery, Ithaca, New York, 1991.
Montclair State College Art Gallery, New Jersey, Black Women in the Arts, 1990.
East Hampton Center for Contemporary Art, New York, 1990.
Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1990.
Louisa McIntosh Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, 1990.
Jamaica Arts Center, Jamaica, New York, 1990.
Dowd Fine Arts Gallery, SUNY at Cortland, New York, Four Views, Four African American Artists, 1990.
University of Maine at Orono, Museum of Art, Maine, Monoprints/Monotypes, 1989.
Flushing Center, Queens, New York, Impressions: Our World, 1989.
Center for Art and Culture, Brooklyn, New York, 1989. (Curated by Frances Hynes)
National Coalition of 100 Black Women Inc., Stamford, Connecticut, Expressions: Black Art ‘88, 1988.
June Kelly Gallery, New York, A Summer Spectrum, 1988.
Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, Monotypes, 1988.
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, Who’s Uptown, 1988.
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, Works in the Collection, 1988.
Fashion Moda Gallery, Bronx, New York, 1988.
Cinque Gallery, New York, Small Works, 1988.
P.P.O.W. Inc., New York, Heresies - 10th Anniversary Show, 1987.
Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, Current Thinking, 1987.
AT&T, Hopewell, New Jersey, Celebration, 1987.
McIntosh Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, 1987.
Wenniger Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 1987.
Associated American Artists Gallery, New York, Hot off the Press, 1986.
Women’s Center, New York, 1986.
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1986.
The Bergen Museum of Art and Science, Paramus, New Jersey, Collage-The State of the Art, 1985.
Newark Museum, New Jersey, Twentieth Century Afro-American Artists: Selection from the Permanent Collection, 1985.
The Clocktower Gallery, New York, Progressions: A Cultural Legacy, 1985. (Curated by Viviane Brown, Emma Amos, Julia Hotton)
Associated American Artists, New York, Prints From Blocks 1900-1985, 1985.
Mid-Hudson Valley Gallery, Poughkeepsie, New York, 1985. (Curated by Barbara Haskell)
843 Studio Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, Masters of Collage, 1985.
The Interchurch Center in conjunction with Cinque Gallery, New York, Minority Art Educators, 1985.
Purdue University, Fort Wayne, Indiana, The Women’s Art Exhibit, 1984.
Diane Brewer Gallery, New York, 1984.
Saginaw Art Museum, Michigan, 1984.
Ericson Gallery, New York, Gallery Artists Exhibition, 1984.
Henry Street Settlement/Louis Abrons Arts for Living Center, New York, 1984. (Curated by Romare Bearden)
First Women’s Bank, New York, Salute to Black Women Artists, 1983.
The Member’s Gallery, Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo, New York, 1983.
Ericson Gallery, New York, The Water’s Edge, 1983.
Ericson Gallery, New York, Invitational Show, 1982.
Equitable Life Assurance, New York, Black Achievement in the Arts, 1982.
Miriam Perlman Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, 1982.
Renaissance Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio, 1982.
Cat Video, New York, Beauty Exhibition, 1982.
Brooklyn Museum, New York, Biennial Print Exhibition, 1981. (Curated by Gene Baro)
The Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, Recent Acquisitions, 1981.
The First Women’s Bank, New York, Illusions of Space, 1981.
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York, The Working Process, 1981.
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, Enroute: Six Contemporary Artists, 1981. (Curated by Patricia Moman Bell)
Ludlow-Hyland Gallery, New York, Off the Wall, 1981.
Westbeth Gallery, New York, Action Against Racism, 1981.
P. Stanback Museum, South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, South Carolina, 1981.
Westdeutsche Landesbank, New York, 1981.
Jazzonia Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, 1981.
Westbeth Gallery, New York, Voices Expressing What Is: Action Against Racism, 1981.
Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York, Annual Juried Show, 1980. (Curated by Grace Glueck)
Museum of the National Center for Afro-American Artists, Roxbury, Massachusetts, Prints and Drawings of Afro-Americans, 1980.
80 Washington Square East Gallery, New York, 1980.
New York University, New York, ll Works, 1980. (Curated by Patterson Sims)
Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, Summer Show, 1980.
Newton Street Gallery, Washington, DC, 1980.
22 Wooster Gallery, New York, Artists: New Sensibilities, 1979.
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York, Eastville Artists, 1979. (Curated by Alvin Loving)
Diane Brewer Gallery, New York, Art Works, 1979.
Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, 25th Annual Juried Exhibition, 1978. (Curated by Hans Namuth)
Nassau County Museum, Hempstead, New York, Women Celebrate Women, 1978.
Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York, 1978.
Grace Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, 1977.
Wooster College, Ohio, National Association of Fine Arts Small Colleges, 1976.
Università Per Stranieri, Perugia, Italy, 1974. 

Grants, Fellowships, Residencies and Awards
2021 - Anonymous Was a Woman, Grant
2018 - Pratt Faculty Development Fund Award, Grant
2017 - Hydra Art Project, Perugia, Italy, Residency
2015-2016 - Experimental Printmaking Institute, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, Residency
2014 - The Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, Grant
2013 - The Artists’ Fellowship Inc, Grant
          - The Mayer Foundation, Grant
2012, 2009 - Pratt Faculty Development Fund Award, Grant
2007 - Cultural Envoy to Syria, Representing the USA at the 7th Annual Women’s Art Festival, Aleppo, Syria
1999 - Brandywine Workshop, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Fellowship
1997 - Lower East Side Printshop, Inc., New York, Fellowship
           - Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina, Residency
1996 - The Wheeler Foundation, Grant
          - West Virginia Wesleyan College, Buckhannon, Residency
1994 - The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Grant
1992 - Pondside Press Graphics Workshop, Rhinebeck, New York, Fellowship
1991 - Triangle Workshop, Pine Plains, New York, Residency
          - The Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Fellowship
1990 - New York Foundation for the Arts, Drawing, Grant
1989 - Robert Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop, Fellowship, New York
1988 - Coalition of 100 Black Women’s Century Art Award, Best of Show, Juror Kellie Jones, Stamford, Connecticut
1986 - Poster design for Jazz Mobil and Lincoln Center, Assoc. of Graphic Arts      Awards, New York
1985 - New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Grant
1984 - New York State Council on the Arts, Artist in Residence at Cinque Gallery, New York
1981 - National Endowment for the Arts Washington, DC, Grant
           - The Jerome Foundation Grant, New York

SELECTED PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
American Express, Minneapolis, Minnesota
ARCO, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
AT&T, Florida, New Jersey
Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland
Bellevue Hospital, New York
Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama
Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, New Jersey
The Bob Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, New York
The Brandy Wine Workshop Collection, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Broadway Savings and Loans, Los Angeles, California
The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
Charles H. Wright Museum, Detroit, Michigan
CIGNA, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Cochran Foundation, LaGrange, Georgoa
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio
Curtis and Edison Law Firm, Detroit, Michigan
Deloitte Touche LLP, Parsippany, New Jersey
Dwight Englewood School, Englewood, New Jersey
Ferguson Development, LLC, Lansing, Michigan
First Independence National Bank, Detroit, Michigan
General Electric, Fairfield, Connecticut
The Horseman Collection, St. Louis, Missouri
Herbert F. Johnson Art Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Huntington Museum, Huntington, West Virginia
IBM, Stamford, Connecticut
The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, New Jersey
Johnson & Johnson, Inc., New Brunswick, New Jersey
Lang Communications, Randolph, Vermont
The Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Lower East Side Printshop, Inc., New York
Lucent Technologies, Warren and Basking Ridge, New Jersey
Magic Johnson Enterprises, Los Angeles, California
McKinsey & Co., New York
The Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey
Merck Pharmaceutical Co., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, New York
Motown Corp. L.P., Los Angeles, California
Mott-Warsh Foundation, Flint, Michigan
Mudd Center, Oberlin College Library, Oberlin, Ohio
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
National Steel Corp., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Nedd Hotel Collections, London, England
The Newark Museum, New Jersey
Nextel Corp., Los Angeles, California
Nissho Iwai American Corporation, New York
Paul R. Jones Initiative, University Delaware, Newark, Delaware
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
PepsiCo, New York
Perez Museum, Miami, Florida
Planned Parenthood, New York
Rutgers University School of Graduate Management, Newark, New Jersey
Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri
Salomon Brothers, New York
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York
Sims Varner and Associates, Detroit, Michigan
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, New York
State Farm Insurance, West Lake, California
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
Times Mirror, New York
The United States Embassy, Lome, Togo
The University Museum, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware
The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
U.S.A.A., San Antonio, Texas
University of Maryland David C. Driskell Center, College Park, Maryland
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut