About

Colette Brésilla

I am a Haitian-born painter, textile designer, and sculptor. My training includes studies at and a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston—and immersion in Haitian art of multiple media. Art-making is an integral part of my life experience, coming from a culture steeped in the arts. I believe in the transformative and healing potential of the arts and art production, and consider myself a cultural worker. Using a Haitian cosmological term, I view my role as an artist as that of a chwal, or vessel of a variety of traditions and aesthetic frameworks, through which new ideas also flow.

The female figure and conceptions of women have figured prominently in my work: from Haitian market women with pipes and Japanese geishas to thinkers, nudes, and mothers. I am interested in representations of complicated figures at ease with themselves who at the same time mirror particular identities.

Improvisation greatly informs my approach to making paintings. For the past several years, I have painted exclusively with palette knives, oil sticks, and wax paste (teaching myself to work in this manner with these materials). I want to make paintings whose quality in texture gestures beyond the 2-dimensional and suggests the sculptural. My textile pieces represent a more physical form of work and a welcome re-connection to the ancient technique of appliqué, an important art from Benin, West Africa, the ancestral homeland named by many Haitians.

I have had the good fortune of having my work included in exhibitions at museums and galleries including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The New Bedford Art Museum; Centre D’art Visuel Galerie and Musée D’Art Naïf, Québec; The National Association of Women Artists, Inc., New York; Saatchi Gallery online; Aurora Gallery, Fitchburg Art Museum, Worcester; The Providence Art Club; and the Kim Po Gallery, New York. My paintings have been acquired by corporate and private collectors in Paris, Italy, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Yorkshire, Boston, New York, and Miami. I have also had the pleasure of collaborating with academics, who have solicited my work for inclusion in literary projects reproducing paintings in books, and literary journals; and recently for a book cover.

EDUCATION

1992 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting and Textile Design, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

INCLUSION IN PUBLIC ART PROJECTS

2021 SMFA Juried Annual Sales Exhibition, Boston MA

2018 Black Portraiture (s) IV Conference, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge MA

2018 Sixth Annual One, Members’ Exhibitions, Aurora Gallery, Worcester MA

2018 After A Fashion, Members’ Exhibition, Aurora Gallery, Worcester MA

2016 Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg 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

COLLECTIONS

Corporate and private collections in more than 20 countries.

TEACHING

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

2022 Ancestors’ Voices / Vwa Zansèt Yo at Laconia Gallery, Boston, MA

2022 Paintings Exhibition at The Arts at The Armory, Somerville MA

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

2022 SMFA Juried Annual Sales Exhibition, Boston MA

2021 SMFA Juried Annual Sales Exhibition, Boston MA

2019 Summer Members’ Exhibition, Provincetown Art Association, and Museum MA

2018 Members’ Exhibition, New Bedford Art Museum, New Bedford MA

2018 Vibration Tropical, Centre d’Art Visuel Gallery and Musee d’Art Naif, Magog Quebec

2018 Summer Members’ Exhibition, Provincetown Art Association, and Museum MA

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

Provincetown, 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, Grenada,

West Indies

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

2021 Brother Thomas Fellowship Nominee, Boston MA

2021 Recipient of the “Cultural Emergency Kit” in recognition of a cultural emergency first responder. Boston MA

2018 First Prize Winner “After A Fashion” Competition- Aurora Gallery, Worcester MA

2017 Brother Thomas Fellowship Nominee, Boston MA

2013 OKAN, LLC Global Warming Grant, Boston MA

JURIES

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

WORK INCLUDED IN PUBLICATIONS

2023 Transition Magazine, Transition Issue 134, 2023 Indiana University Press

2021 Teaching Haiti: Strategies for Creating New Narratives, editors, Cécile Accilien and Valérie K. Orlando.

2021 Island Heart: The Poems of Ida Faubert translated by Danielle Legros Georges  

2018 Boston Voyager Magazine

2018 Salamander Poetry Magazine

2017 The Bay State Banner

2016 The Chelsea Records

2015 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

1995 The Tech (MIT)