Resplendent is a group exhibition featuring the collage artwork of Alexandria Valentine, Marryam Moma, Heather Polk, Bria Sterling-Wilson, and Zoë Charlton at Connect+Collect Gallery in Baltimore. The show is viewable by appointment from March 28th through May 10th, 2022 and runs concurrently with Resplendent at Mehari Sequar Gallery in Washington, D.C. Resplendent is curated by Teri Henderson and features artists from Black Collagists: The Book. A public celebration for this exhibition will be held on Friday April 1st, 2022 from 7-9 pm.

Resplendent extends to the digital window gallery with additional images of Black collage artwork by the artists in the show. The digital window gallery is viewable nightly entirely from the outside from 5 to 11 pm.

Using collage as both a medium and a metaphor, the women in Resplendent have created collaged artworks that speak to the variations of Black feminine beauty, drawing from popular culture and their own personal archives.  Resplendent features the work of Marryam Moma, Heather Polk, Bria-Sterling Wilson and Zoë Charlton. All four of these artists were recently featured in Black Collagists: The Book. Resplendent depicts Black women in various forms, resolute, resting, at leisure, strong, soft, and in all of the works Black women are centered and in focus, reflecting the mastery of the hands that moved paper across substrate to create the works on display, a resplendent and transcendent array of Black contemporary collage artwork.

There is an inherent and subconscious element behind the creation of collaged works. Some invisible force, perhaps divine, perhaps just deeply within our humanity, the work of Black women collagists calls to the tradition of Black collage historically, as well as less discussed traditions like quilting and assemblage. The works in Resplendent all signal the collective consciousness of Black women collagists and definitions of what is considered beautiful in popular culture. Some connections are direct, some more subconscious. The results are a garden of collages that are exquisite, generative, and full of depth and beauty, reflecting Black popular culture of both past and present, from old Jet Magazine advertisements to African sculpture.

Please email Gallery Coordinator Teri Henderson (teri@bmoreart.com) for purchase inquiries and to make appointments to see the work.

Connect+Collect
2519 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland

Instagram: @blackcollagists