Brenda Zlamany
Brenda Zlamany is a painter who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Since 1982 her work has appeared in over a dozen solo exhibitions (including, in New York City, at Jonathan O’Hara Gallery, Stux Gallery, Jessica Fredericks Gallery, and E. M. Donahue Gallery, and, in Brussels, at Sabine Wachters Fine Arts) and numerous group shows in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Museums that have exhibited her work include the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei; the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Germany; the National Museum, Gdansk, Poland; and Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent, Belgium. Her work has been reviewed in Artforum, Art in America, ARTnews, Flash Art, the New Yorker, The New York Times, and elsewhere and is held in the collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum; Deutsche Bank; the Neuberger Museum of Art; the Virginia Museum of Fine Art; the World Bank; Yale University; and Rockefeller University. Zlamany has collaborated with authors and editors of the New York Times Magazine on several portrait commissions, including an image of Marian Anderson for an article by Jessye Norman and one of Osama bin Laden for the cover of the September 11, 2005, issue. Grants she has received include a Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant, Fulbright Fellowship, Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, New York Foundation for the Arts Artists’ Fellowship in painting, and Jerome Foundation Fellowship. She received a BA from Wesleyan University.
Artist Statement
Reinvigorating portraiture has been my focus since my first portrait show in '94, featuring fellow artists. A pivotal shift occurred in '07 during a summer in Tibet, inspiring me to investigate portraiture beyond my immediate circle. A 2011 Fulbright grant to Taiwan launched The Itinerant Portraitist—a project exploring portraiture's global impact. I combine painting, film, and storytelling with immersive research, with empathy as my superpower. Painting a portrait, stroke by stroke, creates a longed-for connection amid our fast-paced, digital era. My work aims to illuminate the lives, both historical and present, of individuals who have been overlooked in art and undervalued in society, celebrating the enduring power of human connection.
At Tusen Takk
During the residency, I will continue my multi-year global project The Itinerant Portraitist with a new "Climate in America" chapter focused on Michigan's cherry farming community. Painting watercolor portraits from direct observation using a camera lucida while simultaneously video recording conversations, I will explore the challenges cherry farmers face from climate change impacts to increasing competition. Tusen Takk's rural setting is ideal to capture the symbiotic connection between the farmers and their environment. Through workshops and presentations, I plan to engage the regional arts community, fostering dialogue linking portraiture, nature and community while raising awareness about crucial issues.
Instagram: @brenda_zlamany
