about.
Zoë Charlton (Baltimore, MD) creates figure drawings, collages, installations, and animations that depict her subject’s relationship to culturally loaded objects and landscapes. Charlton received her MFA degree from the University of Texas at Austin and participated in residencies at Artpace (TX), McColl Center for Art + Innovation (NC), Ucross Foundation (WY), the Skowhegan School of Painting (ME), and the Patterson Residency at the Creative Alliance (MD).
Her work has been included in national and international exhibitions including The Delaware Contemporary (DE), the Harvey B. Gantt Center (NC), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (AR), Studio Museum of Harlem (NY), Contemporary Art Museum (TX), the Zacheta National Gallery of Art (Poland), and Haas & Fischer Gallery (Switzerland).
She is a recipient of a Pollock-Krasner grant (2012) and a Rubys grant (2014). Museum collections include The Phillips Collection (DC), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (AR), Birmingham Museum of Art (AL), Baltimore Museum of Art (MD), and Studio Museum in Harlem (NY).
photo Credit Grace Roselli, Pandora's BoxX Project
Charlton co-founded ‘sindikit (2016-2022) with DC-based artist Tim Doud, a collaborative art initiative that centers creative research and projects in gender, sexuality, and race. She co-founded of Kindred Creative Residence + Agro-ForesT (2022-2023), based in Fletcher, VT, a BIPOC LGBTQIA+ led, inclusive collective of farmers, artists, educators, and activists committed to teaching sustainable living through regenerative agriculture, community outreach, and arts education. Charlton held a seat on the Maryland State Arts Council for two 3-year terms (2018-23). She is a board member at the Washington Project for the Arts (DC) and Threewalls (IL).
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 currently a tenured, Full Professor of Art and Director of the School of Art at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
Charlton served 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 from 2022-23. Her current exhibitions include “A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration”, a traveling group exhibition co-curated by former Chief Curator Ryan Dennis at the Mississippi Museum of Art and Curator and Department Head of Contemporary Art Jessica Bell Brown at the Baltimore Museum of Art and Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage curated by Senior Curator Katie Delmez at the Frist Art Museum (TN).
As ‘sindikit, she co-edited Out of Place: Artists, Pedagogy, and Purpose available through Punctum Books. Broad in scope, Out of Place: Artists, Pedagogy, and Purpose presents an overview of the different paths taken by artists and artist collectives as they navigate their way from formative experiences into pedagogy.
