Photo by: Grace Roselli
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 Gallery – Baltimore, MD
2000
Women’s History Exhibition
J.E. Lewis Museum Morgan University – Baltimore, MD
Artafexus-Artscape
Pinkard Galleries, MICA – Baltimore, MD
1990
Visual AIDS (George Ciscle -curator)
Museum for Contemporary Arts – Baltimore, 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 Place – Baltimore, MD
1992
One Person Exhibition
Western Maryland College – Westminster, MD
Group show–Marketplace
National Black Arts Festival – Atlanta, GA
1993
Five Baltimore Artists
Maryland Art Place
God Bless the Child: Tribute to Billie Holliday
Eubie Blake National Museum and Cultural Center – Baltimore, 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 Arts – Ellicott 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 College – Baltimore, MD
2003
Charmopolis
Maryland Art Place – Baltimore, MD
Select/Art Auction
WPA/Corcoran – Washington, DC
2004
Artscape
Meyerhoff Gallery, MICA – Baltimore, MD
2005
Collaborations
Pyramid Atlantic Print – Silver 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.