This presentation on The African Diva Project was given by Margaret Rose Vendryes,PhD, on the occasion of Howard University’s 28th James A. Porter Colloquium on African American Art in March, 2017.
Click here for the presentation

The James A. Porter Colloquium is a three-day scholarly program at Howard University exploring African American art history and cultural development. Started in 1990 by art historian Dr. Floyd Coleman, the Porter Colloquium is the foremost academic setting for innovative dialogue and perspectives from leading and emerging scholars, artist, collectors, and cultural critics.
Over the years the Colloquium's presenters have included leaders in the field, such as David C. Driskell, Ann Gibson, Leslie King Hammond, Samella Lewis, Lowery Stokes Sims, Deborah Willis and Judith Wilson. The Colloquium is named in honor of the pioneering Howard University art historian and painter, James A. Porter.

Margaret Rose Vendryes PhD
https://www.york.cuny.edu/portal_coll...

Margaret Rose Vendryes entered the faculty of York College and The Graduate Center in 2000. She is the author of Barthé, A Life in Sculpture (2008). Vendryes returned to York College, in 2013, as Distinguished Lecturer in Fine Arts and Director of the York College Fine Arts Gallery after a seven-year absence.

During this time, Vendryes established a successful studio practice enhanced by her scholarly engagement with African aesthetics and its intersection with popular black music and visual culture.

Artist Dominant Dansby is featured in Art In FLUX's THE DIORAMA PROJECT: City of Curiosities. A public art installation on a construction site at the NE corner of 121st and Frederick Douglass Blvd, New York, NY. April 19 through May 31, 2017
Artists: Dominant Dansby, Carlos Jesus Martinez Dominguez, Leah Poller, Leon Johnson, Leslie Jimenez, Ruben Natal-San Miguel, Sui Park, Suprina and Uday K. Dhar. IMAGE: DOMINANT DANSBY, Secular, 2017. 24 x 30 x 6 inches. Pastel, Color Pencil, Graphite, Paper, Wood.

Morris Arts Presents COMMON GROUND

Opening Reception: Wednesday, March 8, 2017, 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Exhibition Dates: March 8 - August 24, 2017
Gallery at 14 Maple, Third Floor
14 Maple Ave, Morristown, New Jersey 07960
Curated by Jeanne Brasile

Morris Arts will host a free opening reception for the Gallery at 14 Maple’s seventeenth exhibit, entitled COMMON GROUND.
For this occasion, the Exhibition Committee of Morris Arts and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, with guest curator, Jeanne Brasile, selected works by six outstanding New Jersey artists, including Alaine Becker (South Orange); Dominant Dansby (Jersey City); Dahlia Elsayed (Palisades Park); Heejung Kim (Bogota); Mel Leipzig (Trenton) and Alex Piccirillo (Nutley).
Image: Dominant Dansby, "Angular Meditation", 2016, 31x56 inches. Mixed media.

Artwork: Dominant Dansby, Cleft Dimension/Perspective, 2016, Pastel, Color Pencil, Graphite, Paper, Wood, 37 x 33 x 4 inches

Montclair Art Museum Director, Lora Urbanelli and artist Margaret Rose Vendryes discuss how race, power, gender and identity are investigated in her African Diva Project paintings.

This conversation was recorded on Thursday, July 14, 2016, at The Gallery at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New Jersey Properties in Montclair, NJ.

This was the second Art Talk presented during TRANScendence: An Exhibition of Emerging, Contemporary Art by African American and Other Underrepresented Artists. Artists exhibited: Dwight Carter, Dominant Dansby, Bishop Donald Hilliard Jr., Stefanie Nagorka and Margaret Rose Vendryes
Check it out. Click here.

SYNOPSIS: New & Rotating Art and Photography
October 23 - December 20, 2015 As the Asbury Park gallery Exhibit No.9 enters its third year, you are invited to their 2015 year-end show of new and represented international artists' work. See an eclectic mix of contemporary painting, mixed media, experimental photography, and limited edition prints.

Artists: Luis Bivar, Anthony E. Boone, Bohdan Burenko, Ole Marius Jørgensen, Bernhard Handick, Robert Paul Kothe, Tonya Lee, Renée Munn, Zelko Nedic, Atle Østrem, Melissa Bronwen Pyle, Tom & Lois White, Human Wreckage

October 23 - December 20, 2015
Friday + Saturday: 12-9pm / Sunday: 12-6pm
Weekdays by appointment

Exhibit No. 9
550-102 Cookman Avenue
Asbury Park, NJ 07712
www.exhibitnumber9.com

MARGARET ROSE VENDRYES Exhibits with CHILDS GALLERY
At The INK MIAMI ART FAIR During ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH Week
DECEMBER 2ND - 6TH
December 2nd ~ 9:00am - 5:00pm , December 3rd ~ 9:00am - 5:00pm , December 4th & 5th ~ 9:00am - 7:00pm , December 6th ~ 10:00am - 3:00pm
SUITE #152 , Suites of Dorchester, 1850 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach
Artists CHILDS GALLERY will be exhibiting include: MILTON AVERY, ADNAN CHARARA, ERIK DESMAZIERES, EMILY LOMBARDO, MAUD MORGAN, JOHN THOMPSON and SARA ZIELINSKI

A River Depends on its Tributaries: Indigenous African Sculpture in Contemporary Context
Organized by the Walsh Gallery in collaboration with the Merton D. Simpson Gallery

September 8, 2015 - October 12, 2015
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 17, 5pm - 9pm

Walsh Gallery at Seton Hall University, 400 South Orange Ave., South Orange, NJ 0707

Organized by the Walsh Gallery in collaboration with Merton D. Simpson Gallery, and curated by Jeanne Brasile, the exhibition brings together contemporary art with African sculpture from the Merton D. Simpson Gallery.

The goal is to articulate aspects of the sculpture using contemporary art as a vehicle to understand the importance of the sculpture in its original context.

Three paintings from Margaret Rose Vendryes’ The African Diva Project series, Sowei RuPaul, Dan Joan and Dyula Nina, are featured in the exhibition.

Artists: Chakaia Booker, Lucien Clergue, Willie Cole, Robert Lach, Mehdi-Georges Lahlou, So Yoon Lym,Ben F Jones, Merton Simpson, Charlee Swanson, Adejoke Tugbiyele, Margaret Rose Vendryes and Adrienne Wheeler

May 21, 2105 - July 12, 2015. Margaret gives her dynamic female performers agency and protection in her celebrated African Diva Project. Childs Gallery, 169 Newbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02116. Opening Reception: May 21st, 6:00 to 8:00 PM

Boone, Dansby and Smith are among the 50 artists from 20 countries at the FLUX Art Fair, Harlem's first international art fair. May 13 – May 17, 2015. Corn Exchange Building, 81 E. 125th Street, Harlem, NYC 10035

Roger, independent curator, art advisor, private dealer, as well as the founder and director of Tucker Contemporary Art, is a guest curator at FLUX Art Fair, Harlem’s first international art fair. He will be presenting a new series of drawings by the artist, Willie Cole. Corn Exchange Building, 81 E. 125th Street, Harlem, NYC 10035

Ming Smtih’s hand painted photograph, Transcendence #1, is included in Swann Auction Galleries’ April 2, 2015 African American Fine-Art auction; Ascension: A Century of African American Art.

December 9, 2014 - March 7, 2015. Margaret Rose Vendryes gives her dynamic female performers agency and protection in her celebrated African Diva Project. OHR-O'KEEFE Museum of Art , Beau Rivage Resort & Casino Gallery, 386 Beach Boulevard, Biloxi, MS 39530. Artist Talk: January 17, 2015, 2:00 pm

Please join us at the PRIZM Art Fair opening reception on Thursday, December 4th, 7-10pm to view and celebrate the artwork of artists Sylvia Maier, Ming Smith, Margaret Rose Vendryes and other dynamic, contemporary artists at the Miami Center for Architecture and Design. December 4 – 22, 2014.

September 19, 2014 - January 3, 2015. “i found god in myself”, curated by Souleo, is a multimedia and multi-gallery exhibition featuring specially commissioned works by artists, including Margaret Rose Vendryes, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Ntozake Shange’s groundbreaking choreopoem, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf “.

ART & SOUL of the Southeast Queens Community
This outdoor exhibition examines the role of race and gender in contemporary African and African American communities, Art & Soul of the Southeast Queens Community showcases local Queens’ artists Margaret Rose Vendryes’ and Dominique Sindayiganza’s photographs and paintings of young girls and women within contemporary society.

When: Through September 2014
Where: Parsons Boulevard and Jamaica Avenue (Queens, NYC)

IN HER SKIN: Celebrating Women
Eight female artists share what it's like to be IN HER SKIN and present the beauty, talent, flawlessness and lovely imperfections of women.

Exhibiting Artists: Amy Theard, Beatrice Lebreton, Brittani Sensabough, Capucine Bourcart, Kennedy Yanko, Makeba Rainey, Margaret Rose Vendryes and Marthalicia Matarrita

When: Through May 18, 2014
Wednesday - Friday: Noon to 6pm and SAT-SUN: Noon to 5pm
Where: La Maison D'Art, 259 W. 132nd Street between Adam Clayton Powell and Frederick Douglass Blvd., NYC

THE AFRICAN DIVA PROJECT
Eight Paintings from the African Diva Project are featured in this exhibition. A video interview with Vendryes and Essence Magazine’s Editorial Projects Director Patrik Henry Bass is also presented.

When: Through May 30, 2014
Monday - Friday: 8am to 6pm and Saturday - Sunday: 10am-2pm
Where: Obsidian Arts Center, 3501 Chicago Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55407

Exhibition #1
BRIDGING BOUNDARIES: Redefining Diaspora

Opening Reception: Friday, February 7, 2014
6:30 – 9:30pm
Where: Postcrypt Art Gallery
Located in the basement of St. Paul's Chapel on the
Columbia University Morningside campus

Margaret Rose Vendryes’ new portrait, Punu Janelle African Diva, is being exhibited for the first time. The exhibition features 10 selected Columbia University student artists alongside 10 mentoring visual artists based in the Harlem area presenting conversations about racial and cultural identity in the African Diaspora.

Exhibition #2
The African Diva Project:
Paintings by Margaret Rose Vendryes

Opening Reception: Friday, February 7, 2014
6:00 - 8:00 PM
Where: The Miller Gallery
Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning
161-04 Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica, NY

The exhibition is a series of famed album covers by iconic Black female divas redesigned and re-imagined to question the role of race and gender in contemporary Black communities. The exhibit is the work of Professor Margaret Rose Vendryes, artist and Distinguished Lecturer of Fine Arts and Director of the Fine Arts Gallery at York College. It speaks to the evolving views on beauty, especially as it relates to gender and race.

If you haven’t seen Soul & Vibe yet, join FLUX at a reception at Scratch on Tuesday, January 7, 2014 at 7pm and meet the artists.

7:30 pm DISCUSSION with the visual artists, musical artists (Scratch DJ’s) and some of the collectors of the artwork in Soul & Vibe.

Scratch DJ Academy, 32 Cooper Square, 2nd flr, New York, NY 10001

These visual artists participating in the discussion include Soul & Vibe Margaret Rose Vendryes, Walter Lobyn Hamilton, Linus Coraggio, Ruben Natal San Miguel, Lance Johnson, Anthony J. Thomas, & Daren Chambers. Soul & Vibe also features work by Walter Lobyn Hamilton

TCA Artist, Margaret Rose Vendryes, and her African Divas Yaka Tina, Igbo Grace, Ejaham Chaka and Ekoi Whitney are featured in the exhibition.

Check out York College Fine Arts Gallery's exhibition "33 1/3: SIDE TWO, The African Diva Project Continues" opens on October 24th and features new African Divas by the artist Margaret Rose Vendryes.

Margaret Rose Vendryes’ New York City exhibition, 33 1/3: PUSHING THE NEEDLE, is reviewed in the current issue of the International Review of African American Art by Fo Wilson.

Don't miss TCA artist Anthony E. Boone's exhibition of new paintings and sculpture at the Renaissance Newark Hotel. The exhibition will be on view April 22, 2013 – July 22, 2013.

Anthony E. Boone, Dwight Carter, Stefanie Nagorka and Margaret Rose Vendryes are included in THE BEARDEN 100: THE ROMARE BEARDEN 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN MASTER CENTENIAL TRIBUTE.

father knows best, or does he? the art dealer's daughter weighs in on art, culture, identity, and everything in between.

HABITAMIAMI presents The Art of Real Estate. Opening Reception: Monday, December 3, 2012, 5-11pm. Dates: December 3 – 25, 2012
Location: 333 NE 24th Street, Miami, FL33137. Exhibiting Artists: Anthony E. Boone , Gino Cocco, Salvador Dali, Raphael Hasic, Martin Kaupp, Antoni Tàpies and Kemuel Valdes.

Don't Miss Margaret and The African Divas at Rush Arts Gallery's I DREAMED MY PEOPLE WERE CALLING. Curated by Danny Simmons
Opening Reception: November 29, 2012, 6-8pm, Dates: November 29, 2012 – January 25, 2013, Location: 526 West 26th Street, Suite 311, NY, New York

Margaret Rose Vendryes' The African Divas are very busy this Fall and Winter. The Divas are featured in an exhibition in Boston and two exhibitions in New York City's Harlem and Chelsea galleries. Be sure to check them out.

Called "Let Go, Let Gesture: Abstract Ascension," his show features 23 pieces of non-representational art, ranging from a 48- by 60-inch painting called Sunburst to one titled Vista that measures just six inches by eight. Oil, acrylic, and mixed media paintings present flashes of color, moments of texture. Bishop Hilliard's brushstrokes are prominent and his colors are bold. Dragonfly owner Don McKillop describes the paintings as full of "a lot of energy, a lot of inspiration." Dragonfly is collaborating with Tucker Contemporary Art in presenting Bishop Hilliard's art.

Bishop Donald Hilliard, Jr's Let Go, Let Gesture: Abstract Ascension Art Exhibition at the Dragonfly Fine Arts Gallery in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The Let Go, Let Gesture: Abstract Ascension collection explores the deep emotional and spiritual connections that guide Hilliard’s art practice as well as his ministry.

Margaret Rose Vendryes' groundbreaking New York City exhibition of 22 African Divas from The African Diva Project is extended until Saturday, June 23, 2012. Don't miss them.

Featuring selected works from The African Diva Project by MARGARET ROSE VENDRYES
Gelabert Studios Gallery, 255 West 86th Street, New York, NY 10024, Tuesday – Saturday, 2:00 pm – 7:00 pm
OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, June 2nd, 2012, 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm
33 1/3 MIXER: Thursday, June 7, 2012 , 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Enjoy an evening with The Divas and the spinning of DJ Victor Andrews.
ARTIST TALK: Saturday, June 9, 2012 , 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Artist Margaret Rose Vendryes discusses Identity, Gender and Race with Steven Lam, Associate Dean of Art, Cooper Union and Patterson Sims, Independent NYC Curator and Writer. Moderated by Sheryl Hilliard Tucker, Tucker Contemporary Art.
This show will mark Vendryes’ first solo exhibition in New York. The show features work from The African Diva Project, a radical commentary on and comparison of the role of gender in African cultures and in contemporary society.

TCA Director, Roger C. Tucker III, talks about Collecting Contemporary African American Art. Check it out.

Margaret Rose Vendryes, art historian and TCA artist wrote an important year in review survey for the 35th Anniversary edition of the International Review of African American Art.

TCA artist Margaret Rose Vendryes, a Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series 2011 Regional Finalist, was featured at the SCOPE Fair, Art Basel Miami Beach 2011. Her entry, PUMBU ABBEY is part of Vendryes' African Diva Project.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has acquired 67 works by African-American artists from museum benefactor John Axelrod, a retired attorney and former trustee who oversaw the MFA's diversity advisory committee. According to the Boston Globe, Axelrod is selling the works to the MFA for between $5 million and $10 million, well below market rate. MFA director Malcolm Rogers told the Globe, "It would have been absolutely impossible to buy these on the open market." Axelrod has also donated his research library of books about African-American artists, as well as funds to support scholarship.
Art in America, by Stephanie Cash

Artist Adam Pendleton is featured in November's ART FORUM. See his new exhibit, A Promise Is A Cloud, November 5 at MetroTech Center Commons.

NEW YORK— Feeling a lack of resources in the art world for emerging artists of color, brothers Russell (the hip-hop mogul), Danny (an artist), and Joseph "Reverend Run" (of Run-DMC) Simmons founded Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation in 1996. The foundation and its Chelsea space, Rush Arts Gallery, helped launch the careers of artists like Kalup Linzy, Kehinde Wiley, and Barron Claiborne, and his since expanded to help all emerging artists. It celebrates its 15th anniversary this year with a series of events and a limited-edition portfolio that went on sale at Artspace.com Tuesday.
- ARTINFO.com

Corcoran Gallery of Art
30 Americans showcases works by many of the most important African American artists of the last three decades.

October 2, 2011 - January 8, 2012. Part of Pacific Standard Time, an unprecedented collaboration of cultural institutions across Southern California coming together to celebrate the birth of the L.A. art scene, the Now Dig This! exhibition does important work recovering some forgotten or under-known figures.

Get this book! It sheds light on the history of Los Angeles’ volatile 1960s and ‘70s assemblage movement, and its often overlooked African American artists.

Elizabeth Peyton's black-and-white portrait of Jay-Z from 2008 sold to an anonymous bidder for $85,000.

Glen Ligon's Stranger #44 purchased by Jennifer Aniston sets record price for the African American artist.