Margaret Rose Vendryes

 

WHILE I (Divorce Series), 2021
Painted wood shadow box, machine shredded handwritten letters, painted wood letter “I”
11 ½ x 13 ½ x 3 ½ inches
NFS

BECAUSE I (Divorce Series), 2021
Painted wood shadow box, machine shredded handwritten letters, painted wood letter “I”
11 ½ x 13 ½ x 3 ½ inches
NFS 

I KNOW (Divorce Series), 2021
Painted wood shadow box, machine shredded handwritten letters, painted wood letter “I”
11 ½ x 13 ½ x 3 ½ inches
NFS

For all sales inquiries, contact Dan Bamba, Arts Services Director: dbamba@flushingtownhall.org

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Artist Website

Artist Statement

As I coped with the COVID pandemic isolation, a decades-old, unfinished project titled UNMADE reemerged with a vengeance. Divorce was added to UNMADE because, after shredding all the letters (dated as far back as 1972) written to me by my two ex-spouses, those shreds took on new life especially once contained inside pristine, white shadowboxes. This presentation, where fragments of words dangle and mingle, prompted me to recall what was written on those pages that are now only accessible through my aging memory.

About The Artist

Margaret Rose Vendryes is an art historian, visual artist, and curator. She received her BA in fine arts from Amherst College, MA in art history from Tulane University, and Ph.D. in art history from Princeton University. She taught at Princeton University and Amherst College before entering the faculty at York College & The Graduate Center of the City University of New York where she received tenure in 2006. Among several honors, Vendryes held an American Association of University Women Fellowship and was a Scholar-in-Residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. In 2008, University Press of Mississippi published Vendryes’ book Barthé, A Life in Sculpture, the first comprehensive monograph on the late African American sculptor Richmond Barthé. Vendryes has had solo exhibitions of her African Diva Project paintings in Boston, NYC, and Biloxi, MS as well as exhibited in several group shows over the last decade. Her studio practice has expanded to include commissioned public installations and interactive projects. Vendryes was until recently Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Performing and Fine Arts and Director of the Fine Arts Gallery at York College, CUNY, and had accepted the position of dean of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts before her unexpected death in early 2022.

Learn more: https://www.mrvendryes.com