Bio
Bethani Blake (b. 1999) is an artist, curator, and educator based in Hartford, CT. She received her B.F.A in Painting and Performing Arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2021 and has exhibited work in Connecticut. Georgia, and Ohio. Blake is currently the Amistad Associate Curator for the African Diaspora at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art where she organizes exhibitions and heads an artist residency.
Artist Statement
Blake translates a present day world which depicts personal nostalgia, recontextualizing appropriated and personal images. A first generation Black person in an immediate family of white Americans, she grew up surrounded by iconography and other paraphernalia specific to American culture and first-world consumption. Conflicting agency as a consequence of existing between contradictory circumstances, she chooses to acknowledge this connection which drives her to depict an experience in contemporary society with subject matter related to cultural movements specific to the turn of the twenty-first century and present day.
Her practice involves the systematic curation of information which is accessed through the Internet and interpersonal communication. From music to video games, fandom, and social issues, she creates visual work which investigates her relationship to the imagery. Blake is most interested in the collapsing of time, how information intersects conceptually, and the irony of her position in the work she is investigating.
C/V
Education
Savannah College of Art and Design 2021
BFA - Painting & Performing Arts
Professional Experience
Amistad Associate Curator for the African Diaspora | Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (2024 - present)
Programs Manager for the African Diaspora | Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (2023-24)
Curatorial Intern | Wexner Center for the Arts (2022-23)
Exhibitions, Programs, and Public Presentations
2024 Thicker Than Water | Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Ming Smith: Wind Chime | Wexner Center for the Arts
Styling Identites: Hair’s Tangled Histories | Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Made Visible: Origins in Belonging | Creative Arts Workshop
There is Always Something Left to Love | Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
2023 SNAP! Photography (2023-present) | The Amistad Center for Art & Culture at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Sahar Khoury: UMM | Wexner Center for the Arts
AFROgenius | The Amistad Center for Art & Culture at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Breaking the Mold: A Survey of Women’s Art | The King Arts Complex
Anna Tsouhlarakis: The Native Guide Project: Columbus | Wexner Center for the Arts
There’s a Space For All of Us | Westerville Arts Council & Otterbein University
2022 That’s a Wrap! | Gutstein Gallery | SCAD
Black Joy: Expansive, Unfiltered, Unapologetic | The Ohio State University
In Conversation with Katharina Grosse and Dan Cameron | SCAD
2021 Drawing Works | Alexander Hall, SCAD
Fragments | 400 West Rich Gallery
Hinterland Tour and Artist Talk with Andrew K. Shepherd | Instagram Live
B.F.A Senior Showcase | SCAD
2020 UNdefineD Art | CUMSHOT Collective
Open Studio (Spring) | SCAD
Read, Watch, Listen | Wexner Center for the Arts
Open Studio (Fall) | SCAD
Awards
2021 Summa Cum Laude | Savannah College of Art and Design
Honorable Mention | B.F.A Senior Showcase | Savannah College of Art and Design
Dean’s List (2017 thru 2021) | Savannah College of Art and Design
Publications and Press
2024 How Hair Weaves Us Together | Hyperallergic
New Curatorial Role for Bethani Blake at Amistad Center | Culture Type
Weston Makes Belonging Visible at CAW | Arts Council of Greater New Haven
Native American Artist Anna Tsouhlarakis unveils 'The Native Guide Project: Columbus’, The Lantern
2022 Wexner Center for the Arts Winter-Spring Exhibitions Press Release
Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet As It’s Kept | Credits/Staff