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), and Studio Museum in Harlem (NY).
photo Credit Grace Roselli, Pandora's BoxX Project
Charlton co-founded ‘sindikit with DC-based artist Tim Doud, a collaborative art initiative that centers creative research and projects in gender, sexuality, and race (2016-2022). She is also co-founder of Kindred Creative Residence + Agro-ForesT (2022), based in Fletcher, VT. Kindred CRAFT is 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 holds a seat on the Maryland State Arts Council. 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 a tenured, Full Professor of Art and Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Art at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
Charlton is serving 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. Her current exhibitions include “A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration”, a traveling group exhibition co-curated by 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.
As ‘sindikit, Zoë Charlton and Tim Doud 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.
