On March 14 an artist from the USA - Zoë Charlton - will visit the Vilnius Academy of Arts and give open artist's talk lecture
Zoë Charlton creates figure drawings, collages, installations, and animations that depict her subject’s relationship to culturally loaded objects and landscapes. She received an MFA degree from the University of Texas, Austin (1999) and a BFA degree from Florida State University (1993). She is a co-founder of Kindred Creative Residence + Agro-ForesT, based in Fletcher, VT. Kindred CRAFT is a BIPOC (Black Indigenous and People of color) LGBTQIA+ led, inclusive collective of farmers, artists, educators, and activists committed to teaching sustainable living through regenerative agriculture, community outreach, and arts education.
Kindred CRAFT Dream House surrounded by woods
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Kindred CRAFT Collective members working in the High Tunnel.jpg)
Charlton joined the faculty in the School of Art at George Mason University in fall 2022. She is a full Professor of Art and the Director of Graduate Studies and teaches both undergraduate classes in drawing and graduate courses. From 2003-2022, she taught full-time at American University (DC) and received tenure in 2009. She served as Chair of the Department of Art from 2015-2018 and was the first Black American tenured, full Professor in the department. Charlton is serving on an 8-member steering committee at the Baltimore Museum of Art to reimagine equitable and accountable structures and functions of cultural institutions within diverse local and regional communities.
Image of 'Compansion, Constant', 2015, Baltimore Museum of Art
On March 14 Zoë Charlton will present herself in Titanic building, auditorium 112 from 11:00 to 12:30 in a form of artist's talk.
I’m an artist, facilitator of conversations between artists and communities, and an educator. As an artist, I make drawings, animations, and installations. My primary studio practice is figure-drawing; however, I also make large-scale collages,
installations, animations/videos, and frequently collaborate with other artists. I make drawings with collaged elements sourced from mass produced imagery. This combination of approaches helps the work maintain the appearance of spontaneity, and
humor.
My work is largely inspired by my grandmother’s life and the land she owned in the Florida Panhandle and her and her ubiquitous light blue wood house. I’m a board member of the Washington Project for the Arts and a Maryland State Arts Councilor and in my 2nd 3-year term for both organizations. I’ve also worked with two cultural/community arts initiatives centering Black liberation as their core values, The Circuit and The Blacksmiths, spaces where I’ve found the most alignment with my values.
The artist's visit is organized by the US Embassy in Lithuania.
