Helina Metaferia
Education
- Lives and works in New York, NY
- 2016
- Participant, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
- 2015
- MFA – Interdisciplinary Art, Tufts University – School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA 2005
- BA – Fine Art – Painting, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD
- 2001-2002
- Courses toward BFA, Temple University – Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Selected Exhibitions
- 2022
- "All Put Together," Bolinas Art Museum, Bolinas, CA
- "All Put Together," Praise Shadows Art Gallery, Boston, MA
- 2021-2022
- "Helina Metaferia: Generations," Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
- 2021
- "Helina Metaferia: (Middle) Passage for Dreams," New York University’s The Gallatin Galleries, New York, NY
- 2020
- "Against A Sharp White Background," Northeastern University’s Gallery 360, Boston, MA
- "Against A Sharp White Background," Auburn University’s Biggin Gallery, Auburn, AL
- 2019
- "By Way of Revolution," Michigan State University’s SCENE Metrospace Gallery (with performance at MSU Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum), East Lansing, MI
- 2018
- "Refiguring the Canon," Hamiltonian Gallery, Washington, DC
- 2017
- "Home/Free," Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA
- 2015
- "Ancestral Honoring," Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (solo performance)
- 2014
- "Re-Collections," Mission Hill Gallery – School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
- 2013
- "Great Migration," International African Studies Association Conference, Baltimore, MD
- 2012
- "Helina Metaferia: Divine Feminine," River Views Artspace, Lynchburg, VA
- 2010
- "Journey," Williams College’s Jenness Building Gallery, Williamstown, MA
- 2007
- "Finding Womban," Theater Project, Baltimore, MD
Two and Three Person Exhibitions
- 2019
- "Counting On You, Counting On Me," NOMAD Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Selected Group Exhibitions, Performances and Video Screenings
- 2024
- "Multiplicities: Collage in Contemporary Art," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX (forthcoming)
- 2023
- "Imagining Black Diasporas: 21st Century Art and Poetics," Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angles, LA (forthcoming)
- "Multiplicities: Collage in Contemporary Art," Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (forthcoming, traveling)
- "Ethiopia at the Crossroads," Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD (forthcoming, traveling show)
- "Perpetual Portrait," Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
- Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
- "Resting Our Eyes," Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
- 2022-2027
- "States of Becoming: Contemporary African Diaspora Artists in the U.S.," Independent Curators International Traveling Exhibition, premiers at The Africa Center, New York, NY
- 2022
- Untitled Art Fair, presented by Marc Straus Gallery, Miami, FL
- "Perplexity," Kreeger Museum, Washington, DC
- "Sound, Stories," Locust Projects, Miami, FL
- "Resilience," Eastville Museum, Sag Harbor, NY
- "All Together," Martin Luther King Library Art Gallery, Washington, DC
- "The Upshot of Trans-Affective Solidarity," Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA
- 2021
- "Designing Motherhood," Center for Architecture and Design, Philadelphia, PA
- "NI DE AQUÍ, NI DE ALLÁ," Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
- "From Modern to Contemporary," CFHILL Art Space, Stockholm, Sweden
- "Artists & Identity: Portraiture, Doppelgängers, Disguise," Art and Culture Center, Hollywood, FL
- "A.I.R Biennial: An A-Historical Daydream," A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
- "Bring it Home," Suzanne Lemberg Usdan Gallery, Bennington College, Bennington, VT
- "Storying," Residency Unlimited Exhibition @ Andrew Freedman Home Gallery, Bronx, NY
- "House of Crowns," pop up show at Phillips first floor galleries, New York, NY
- Untitled Art Fair, presented by Praise Shadows Gallery, Miami, FL
- Art Basel, three person presentation by Addis Fine Art Gallery, Basel, Switzerland
- "Making Marks," Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
- "Home Is: Contemporary Video Art from Ethiopia," The Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon, Israel
- "1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair," presented by Addis Fine Art Gallery, London, UK
- 2020
- "A Different Kind of Weapon," Alabama Contemporary Art Center, Mobile, AL
- "A Beautiful Struggle," Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI
- "Still Here," HUB-Robeson Gallery – Penn State University, University Park, PA
- "In/Flux: On Influence, Inspiration, Transformation," Ortega y Gasset Projects, Brooklyn, NY
- "Cold Hands, Warm Heart," Brentwood Arts Exchange, Brentwood, MD
- "Time Change, Change Time," Auburn University – Biggin Gallery, Auburn, AL
- "Craft School," Shelter in Place Gallery, Boston, MA
- "We Got You: 24 Hour Wide Awake Broadcast," Fridman Gallery, New York, NY
- Addis Video Art Festival: Grounded in Movement, WNDX Moving Image Fest, Winnipeg, Canada
- "Meet Me In The Clouds," Virtual performance commissioned by Sindikit Project, Baltimore, MD
- "Racism: An American Pandemic," Eastern Connecticut State University Art Gallery, Hartford, CT
- 2019
- "Idol Worship," Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY 2019 Unboxing: Double Speak, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, MI
- "Addis Video Art Festival: Mutual Periphery," Modern Art Museum, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- "Love In the Time of Hysteria," Prizm Art, Miami, FL
- "Behind the Seen," NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY
- :Still Here," Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA
- "Look Us Over," Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL
- "Artscape Performance Series," Baltimore Office of Promotion & Arts, Baltimore, MD
- "Overlooked," Greater Reston Arts Center, Reston, VA
- "Distance," Dorsky Gallery, Long Island City, NY
- 2018
- "Time Is Love, Ex-New Centre for Contemporary Art," Sulbiate, Italy (traveling video exhibition in 11 additional countries including France, Germany, Japan, Morocco, United Kingdom)
- "Brown Paper Zine Fair," Studio Museum of Harlem @ Langston Hughes House, New York, NY
- "Multiplicities Volume 1: Continuous Unknowing," Assembly Room, New York, NY
- "The Dark Horse," Prizm Art, Miami FL
- "Skowhegan Book Meet," Skowhegan Space, New York, NY
- Film Festival on Theatre & Performance, Martin Segal Theatre Center – City University of New York, Graduate Center, New York, NY
- "Art Speaks: An Evening of Performance Art," Feminist Art Project – Art Share LA, Los Angeles, CA
- "HyphenAmerica," Gallery 102 – George Washington University, Washington, DC
- "What We Don’t Realize When We See Things," The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
- 2017
- "Addis Video Art Festival: Love Triangle," Modern Art Museum, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- "Universal Belonging," Prizm Art, Miami, FL
- "Performance is Alive," Satellite Art Show, Miami, FL
- "Inalienable Truths," Gallery 102 – George Washington University, Washington, DC
- "Freedom," Space Camp Gallery, Baltimore, MD
- "New. Now.," Hamiltonian Gallery, Washington, DC
- "Home," Logan Fringe Arts Space, Washington, DC
- "Prismacolor," Parteojo VideoArt Festival, Barranquilla, Colombia
- "Say Her Name: An Evening of Arts and Action," Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
- "Black Girl Lit – Between Performance & Memory," Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA
- "Art & Academia: 1957 – 2017," James E. Lewis Museum, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD
- "Black Girl Lit," Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts, Brooklyn, NY
- 2016
- "Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter," New Museum, New York, NY
- "New Home," A.P.T. Gallery, London, UK
- "Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter," The Kitchen, New York, NY
- "International Video Art House Madrid Festival," La Neomudejar Arts Center, Madrid, Spain
- "Black Girl Lit – Between Performance & Memory," Five Myles Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
- "Spilt Milk," Thomas Young Gallery, Boston, MA
- 2015
- "Addis Video Art Festival: Grounded in Movement," Modern Art Museum, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- "What It Is & What It Ain’t," co-curator and artist, Panoply Performance Laboratory, Brooklyn, NY
- "Dispositions," Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago, IL
- "Transient Vessels," Massachusetts College of Art and Design – Pozen Center, Boston, MA
- SMFA MFA Thesis Show, The Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA
- "End Recordings," Museum of Fine Arts – Alfond Auditorium, Boston, MA
- "The Great American Performance Art Festival," Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn, NY
- "Mapping the Dorchesterway," Medicine Wheel Gallery, Boston, MA
Residencies & Studio Programs
- 2023
- Women Studio Workshop, Kingston, NY (forthcoming – spring 2023)
- Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY (forthcoming – spring 2023)
- 2021-2023
- Silver Art Projects @ World Trade Center, New York, NY
- 2021
- The Drawing Center Viewing Program, New York, NY
- Residency Unlimited, Brooklyn, NY
- 2020
- Triangle Arts Residency, Brooklyn, NY
- 2019
- New York Artist Residency & Studios (NARS) Foundation, Brooklyn, NY
- Fountainhead Residency, Miami, FL
- 2018-2019
- Michigan State University – Creative Practice in Critical Race Theory Residency, Lansing, MI
- 2018
- The MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH
- Virginia Center for Creative Arts – Alonzo Davis Fellowship, Amherst, VA
- Lighthouse Works Fellowship, Fisher Island, NY
- Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art – Grant Supported Residency, North Adams, MA
- 2017
- Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE
- Ox-Bow, Saugatuck, MI
- 2016
- Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY
- Vermont Studio Center – Full Fellowship, Johnson, VT
Awards, Fellowships, and Grants
- 2022
- Salomon Research Awards, Brown University, Providence, RI
- Center for Study of Race and Ethnicity Practitioner Fellowship, Brown University, Providence, RI
- 2021
- FST Studio Projects Fund, New York, NY
- Lighthouse Works Legacy Grant, Fishers Island, NY
- 2020
- Money for Women Visual Arts Grant, Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Bearsville, NY
- 2019-2021
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship, Brown University, Providence, RI
- 2018
- SMFA Alumni Traveling Fellow, School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University, Boston, MA
- 2017-2018
- Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship, Hamiltonian Gallery, Washington, DC
- 2016
- Emergency Grant, Foundation for Contemporary Art, New York, NY
- Full Fellowship, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
- 2015-2017
- AICAD Teaching Fellowship, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
- 2014
- Public Art Grant, Boston Arts Commission, Boston, MA
- Montague Travel Grant, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
- Graduate Student Research Grant, Tufts University, Boston, MA
- President’s Research Award, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
- Boit Award, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Public Collections
- Los Angelex County Museum of Art, Los Angeles CA
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
- RISD Art Museum, Providence, RI
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY
- Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, MA