COLETTE BRÉSILLA
PERSONAL
Born in Haiti (1966); lives and works in Boston MA
EDUCATION
1992 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Textile Design and Painting, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA
PUBLIC ART PROJECTS
2018 Black Portraiture (s) IV Conference, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge MA
2012 Women’s History Month Exhibit, Mayor’s Office of Tourism, Boston City Hall, Boston MA
2008 Tanbou Nan Lakou Brooklyn, Haitian Drumming and Art Exhibition
2005 Women’s History Month Exhibit, City Hall, Boston MA
1997 Group Exhibition, US Federal Courthouse, Boston MA
1996 The Baby Book Project, the Children’s Museum, Boston Medical Center and Boston Public Library, Boston MA
ART INSTRUCTION
2008-2009 Alliance Française After-School Art Program, Boston MA
1998 Cambridge Public Schools After-School Art Program, Cambridge MA
1994-1995 Elliot School After-School Art Program, Jamaica Plain MA
1993-1995 Art in Progress, Multicultural Art Center, Jamaica Plain MA
1993-1994 Jackson Homestead and Museum, Summer Art Program, Newton
MA
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017 Summer Exhibition, Gallery Ashmonticello, Boston MA
2016 Konekxion Dé, Gallery at Spencer Lofts, Chelsea MA
2016 Konekxion, Parker Gallery at Lesley University, Cambridge MA
2015 Borderless Bird, Mayor’s Office Gallery, Boston City Hall, Boston MA
2015 Spring’s Spirits, the Garage Sale Gallery, Boston MA
2014 Women’s Heritage Month Exhibit, Mayor’s Neighborhood Gallery, Boston MA
2012 University of Massachusetts, Boston MA
2010 Tufts University (Private Law Office) Medford MA
2008 Tufts University (Private Law Office) Medford MA
2007 Sons et Couleurs d’Haiti, Northeastern University, Boston MA
2006 Tones and Tunes of Haiti, French Cultural Center, Boston MA
2005 DLA Piper Rudnick International, Boston MA
2004 Solo Exhibition, Tishman and Speyer, Boston MA
2002 Solo Exhibition, Corners Gallery (Boston Design Center) Boston MA
2000 Solo Exhibition, Fidelity Investments, Boston MA
1999 Solo Exhibition, Fidelity Investments, Boston MA
1996 Solo Exhibition, Tofia Gallery, Waltham MA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018 Members’ Exhibition, Provincetown Art Association and Museum MA
2018 Number Zero Exhibition, Italian Contemporary Gallery, Boston MA
2018 The Sixth Annual One, Members’ Exhibition, Aurora Gallery, Worcester MA
2018 After A Fashion, Members’ Exhibition, Aurora Gallery, Worcester MA
2018 Abstract Art Exhibition, Boston News Network Gallery, Boston MA
2017 E Pluribus Unum, Members’ Exhibition, Aurora Gallery, Worcester MA
2017 Off The Grid, Juried Exhibition, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg MA
2017 Making Your Mark, Juried Exhibition, Providence Art Club, RI
2017 Picture Social Justice & Human Rights, Juried Exhibition, Gallery 1581, Brookline MA
2017 Members’ Exhibition, Provincetown Art Association and Museum MA
2017 A Call to Nature, Juried Exhibition, Audubon Society Habitat, Concord MA
2017 A Call to Nature, Juried Exhibition, Audubon Society Habitat, Belmont MA
2016 Members’ Exhibition, Provincetown Art Association and Museum MA
2016 Off the Grid, Members’ Exhibition, Aurora Gallery, Worcester MA
2016 Members’ Exhibition, Provincetown Art Association and Museum MA
2015 Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Boston MA
2015 Énergie Nouvelle, Wilmer Jennings Gallery, New York NY
2013 The Japanese Spring Festival, Boston City Hall Plaza, Boston MA
2012 Vernissage, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA
2012 Sylvia Wald and Kim Po Gallery, New York NY
2012 Vernissage, The Coral Spring Museum FL
2012 Vernissage, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA
2012 Permanent Collection, Musée d’Art Haitien at College Saint Pierre, Port-
Au Prince Haiti
2012 AFROCENTRIC, Gallery Z, Providence RI
2012 WOMA (Women Make Art), Gallery Grenada St. George
2012 Black History Month Exhibit, University of Massachusetts, Boston MA
2012 Francophonie Festival, Mayor’s Office of Tourism, Boston MA
2011 When Our Brushes Shook, Lesley University, Cambridge MA
2011 NAWA (National Association of Women Artists, Inc.), New York NY
2010 Chronicle (WCVB television show on East Boston Culture)
2007 Group Exhibition, Atlantic Works Gallery, East Boston MA
2006 Group Exhibition, Gallery at the Piano Factory, Boston MA
2005 International Group Exhibition, Artist’s Gallery, Boston MA
1996 Group Exhibition, Zeitgeist Gallery, Cambridge MA
1996 Group Exhibition, Massachusetts State House, Boston MA
1995 Group Exhibition, Ashua Irving Gallery, Boston MA
1989 Group Exhibition, Grossman Gallery, Boston MA
AWARDS AND HONORS
2018 First Prize Winner “After A Fashion” Competition- Aurora Gallery, Worcester MA
2013 OKAN, LLC Global Warming Grant, Boston MA
CURATORIAL
2012 to 2017 Peer Reviewer for “BRA” Artist Certification
2012 YOFEST, The Strand Theatre, Boston MA
2012 Black History Month, University of Massachusetts, Boston MA
2012 Francophonie Festival, Mayor’s Office of Tourism, City of Boston MA
COLLECTIONS
Corporate and private collections in more than 20 countries.
PUBLICATIONS
2018 Salamander Poetry Magazine
2017 The Bay State Banner
2016 The Chelsea Records
2015 Tequila Minsky (Caribbean Life News)
2015 The Boston Globe
2015 Boston Haitian Reporter Cover
2015 Eastie Times Cover
2015 The Boston Network News Interview with Chris Lovett
2015 Kreyolicious Online
2013 Eastie Times Cover
2012 The Voice Newspapers, UK
2008 The BEAT Magazine
1996 The Baby Book Project: Artists Books About Nurturing,
Boston Herald, Boston, MA
1995 The Tech (MIT)
ARTIST STATEMENT
Colette Brésilla is a Haitian-born painter, textile designer, and sculptor who studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA, where she lives and works. Brésilla is a believer in the arts as a form of transformative healing and considers herself a cultural worker for social change. Indeed, she views her role as an artist as that of a shwal, or spiritual vessel, as it is known in Haiti.
Brésilla maintains that the act of creating art often channels responses to the world we live in, by expressing the joy as well as the horror of the current state of social, political, and economic affairs. Her paintings, rich with saturated colors and an idiosyncratic iconography, and her sculptures, with their totemic allusions, reflect a wide scope of spiritual and cultural references, resulting from such realities that convey both the sweetness and bitterness of our everyday lives. Her inspirations are drawn from meditation, certain genres of music, reading, and observations of the interactions of people. Concentrating on the female figure—especially with disarming interpretations of the Japanese geisha, filtered through her perspective as a Haitian-born artist—she explores and explodes traditional conceptions of women, presenting the viewer with compelling figures who both appeal to and confound them.
Like many bi-cultural artists before her, Brésilla has successfully interwoven the strands of her personal cultural origins with the fabric of her new environment. The American artist manifests in the studied refinement and control of brush strokes, the boldly customized nature of colors and political exploration. The Haitian artist is evident in her preoccupations with the cosmos, the complex representations of the Lwas, or the deities that pervade Haitian culture.
Brésilla’s works have been showcased extensively in numerous American and international institutions, including galleries, museums and universities, and are housed in a variety of permanent corporate and private collections. As a “borderless bird,” Brésilla especially values the time she has spent in places such as Togo, Côte D’Ivoire, and Europe, particularly Paris. Through absorption and integration, these vivid visual cultures resonate within the intense visual vocabulary of her work.