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, and 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 gesture 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 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 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
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)