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About Me

My life's goal as an artist is to unlock the secrets to the oldest stories and create new ones.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Oletha DeVane received her B.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art and M.F.A. in painting from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.   As a multidisciplinary artist, her social, political and spiritual concerns are the content of her art practice.  Her first major exhibition was at the Springfield Museum of Art in Massachusetts in 1976. Since then, she has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions locally and internationally. The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture in Baltimore commissioned DeVane to create a video installation documenting Maryland’s history of lynching in 2003 entitled “Witness”. The piece was inspired by an earlier silent video installation of the same subject at Maryland Art Place (2002).

 

Her work is in permanent museum collections and she has exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, Museum of the Bible in NY, Museum of the Americas, DC.  Articles about her work have appeared in issues of the Bmore Art Magazine, JHU’s periodical, the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post. She is among the first African-American artists invited to be an Artist-in-Residence in Abu Dhabi, UAE, was an Artist in Residence in Banff, Canada and Lecce in Italy.  All of her travel and research informs her work.  

 

She is involved in the Baltimore arts community as an exhibiting artist, curator and educator in the arts. She has served on the board of Maryland Art Place, School 33 visual arts panels, as vice-chairperson of Wide Angle Community Media, a non-profit youth media organization in Baltimore and the board of  the Build Haiti Foundation.  She was the Program Director for the Maryland State Arts Council’s Individual Artist (1979-92) and Visual Arts programs (1990-92).

 

An artist and educator, DeVane is the former head of visual arts in the Upper School at McDonogh School in Owings Mills and was honored in 2007 as a recipient of the Rollins/Luetkemeyer Chair for Distinguished Teaching. Oletha started a mosaic in Camp Coq, Haiti with the help of local artisans and students in 2017 with a grant from the Ruby Foundation. She is a recent recipient of the Trawick Prize 2019, the Art Matters Grant in 2018 and 2020, as well as the Anonymous Was A Woman grant in 2021. In 2022, DeVane had her first full retrospective exhibition,Spectrum of Light and Spirit, which featured nearly 100 artworks at University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture. Most recently, Oletha was awarded the Mary Sawyers Baker Prize by the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance. She currently resides in Ellicott City, MD where she maintains her studio practice.

Exhibitions Through The Years

1979

Afro-American Women in Art  

FAMU Gallery –  Tallahassee, FL

Ten Abstract Painters                        

Springfield Museum of Fine Arts – Springfield, MA

1980

One Person Exhibition

Catonsville Community College Gallery – Baltimore, MD

1984

Group Exhibition (Olivia Georgia-curator)

Maryland Art Place – Baltimore, MD

Joyce Scott & Oletha DeVane

Ohio State University Gallery – Wilberforce, OH

Group Exhibition

Meridith Art GalleryBaltimore, MD

2000

Women’s History Exhibition

J.E. Lewis Museum Morgan University – Baltimore, MD

Artafexus-Artscape

Pinkard Galleries, MICABaltimore, MD

1990

Visual AIDS (George Ciscle -curator)

Museum for Contemporary ArtsBaltimore, MD

1991

New Works Exhibition (Faith Ringgold and Clarrisa Sligh-curators)

School 33 Art Center – Baltimore, MD

MAP-Benefit Exhibition (Susan Badder – curator)

Maryland Art PlaceBaltimore, MD

1992

One Person Exhibition

Western Maryland College – Westminster, MD

Group show–Marketplace

National Black Arts FestivalAtlanta, GA

1993

Five Baltimore Artists

Maryland Art Place

God Bless the Child: Tribute to Billie Holliday

Eubie Blake National Museum and Cultural CenterBaltimore, MD

Women Image Women

Life of Maryland Gallery – Owings Mills, MD

1994 – 95

“What We Need To Know About Art” Travelling Exhibition: Shroeder Cherry,
Oletha DeVane, Angela Franklin

Maryland Art Place – Baltimore, MD

1999

De Vane, Ford, Jones, Moore, Pierleoni

Chesapeake Gallery – Harford, MD

Inside/Outside

Howard County Center of the ArtsEllicott City, MD

Through the Fire to the Limits

African American Artists in Maryland  – Annapolis, MD

Selected Work by Doreen Bolger Maryland Women

Government House – Annapolis,  MD

Kromah Gallery Revisited

Artscape Festival ‘98 Meyerhoff Gallery, MICA – Baltimore, MD

Works by Oletha DeVane

Howard Community College Gallery – Columbia, MD

“Unfolding Cycle” (Garden installation with students)

West Friendship Elementary – West Friendship, MD

2001

Kings, Hummingbirds & Monsters (artist book)

Evergreen House, Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD

2002

Arts Maryland

Howard County Center for the Arts – Ellicott City, MD

Artscape–Masks

Villa Julie CollegeBaltimore, MD

2003

Charmopolis

Maryland Art PlaceBaltimore, MD

Select/Art Auction

WPA/Corcoran – Washington, DC

2004

Artscape

Meyerhoff Gallery, MICABaltimore, MD

2005

Collaborations

Pyramid Atlantic PrintSilver Spring, MD

Witness (permanent video installation)

Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture – Baltimore, MD

2006

Riffs/Rhythms

J.E. Lewis Museum, Morgan University – Baltimore, MD

Collaborations

Maryland Art Place – Baltimore, MD

2007

Conflict/Peace

Columbia Art Center – Columbia, MD

Mirror Me

Catonsville Community College – Baltimore, MD

2009

Mother, Daughter, Sister, Self

Galerie Myrtis – Baltimore, MD

Nu Voo Doo

West North Gallery – Baltimore, MD  

Life’s Hardest Things

Lewis Museum–Morgan University – Baltimore, MD

2010

Semi Finalist Sondheim Exhibition

Meyerhoff Gallery, MICA – Baltimore, MD

National Juried Exhibition

Ceres Gallery – New York, NY

National Juried Draw/Print

College of Notre Dame – Baltimore, MD

The WineDark Sea

St. Johns College, Mitchell Gallery – Annapolis, MD

2011

Corridor

Art Museum of the Americas – Washington, DC

Altered Truths, Fractured Myths

City Arts Gallery – Baltimore, MD

Art Select

Corcoran Gallery, WPA – Washington, DC

Femme Fatale

Gallery, Catonsville Community College – Baltimore, MD

Miami Basel/Global Africa Project                      

The Betsy Hotel – Miami, FLA

2012

Four Artists-Sondheim                                           

Top of the World Trade Center Gallery – Baltimore, MD

2013 

Ashe to Amen (traveling)

The Bible Museum – New York, NY

The Dixon Gallery – Memphis, TN

Reginald F. Lewis Museum – Baltimore, MD

Noetics

The Cosmos Club – Washington, DC

Miami Basel: Gurlz of Baltimore                           

The Betsy Hotel – Miami, FL

MICA: Then and Now

Ethan Cohen Gallery – Beacon, NY

2014

Ordinary Woman

Howard County Art Center – Ellicott City, MD

2015

Abu Dhabi-Resident Exhibition

Abu Dhabi Art Gallery –  United Arab Emirates

Breathe in Gold Light

New Door Creative Gallery – Baltimore, MD                        

Inside/Outside 

Creative Alliance – Baltimore, MD

2016  

Black in White America  

Galerie Myrtis –   Baltimore, MD

 International Solarplate Exhibit                        

Alex Ferrone Gallery – New York, New York

2017

Trafficking

Watergate Gallery –   Washington, DC

The Other Side of Darkness                        

Project 1628 Gallery – Baltimore, MD

2018   

Elixir: Artists Respond to Making and Healing  

Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery –   Washington, DC

Relics and Prospects                         

Montpelier Art Center – Laurel,MD

In Her Own Words              

Morgan University,J.E. Lewis Museum – Baltimore, MD                

Collaboration & Innovation                      

The American Craft Center – Los Angeles, CA

The Circuitry of Joyce Jane Scott

2019   

Traces of the Spirit   

Baltimore Museum of Art- Baltimore, MD

        Trawick Prize Finalist

Gallery B, Bethesda, MD

2020
2021
2022

Exploring Presence: African American Artists In The Upper South

James E. Lewis Museum of Art. Morgan State University. Baltimore, MD

Fired Up!

Cary Beth Cryor Gallery. Coppin State University. Baltimore, MD

Spectrum of Light and Spirit

Center of Art, Design, and Visual Culture. UMBC. Baltimore, MD

2023

The Radical Voice of Blackness Speaks of Resistance and Joy

Banneker-Douglass Museum. Annapolis, MD.