Untitled by Pearlie Taylor Collage
A resident of Chicago, Ill., Pearlie is an abstract expressionist artist. Over the past 30 year, Pearlie has worked primarily in acrylics, but also uses a variety of mediums to express her abstract themes. She has studied at The American Academy of Art, and the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC). She is the recipient of the 2004-05 African American Alliance of the Arts Award for Excellence in Abstract Art, and has been published in the March 2006 issue of Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, 2007 Spring/Summer Anniversary issue of BridesNoir Bridal Magazine and the September/October 2007 issue of Chicago GRO Magazine. She won third prize ribbon at Black Creativity 2008 juried art exhibition held at The Museum of science and Industry. Included in Pearlie’s many exhibitions are a solo exhibition at the University of Illinois at Chicago the 2007 National Black Fine Arts Show in New York and Embrace the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta, Ga. Pearlie’s work has been collected around the country and has been exhibited internationally at Cubano Gallery in Toulouse, France her artwork is currently being shown in Chicago at Gallery Guichard.
Miss You by Joyce Owens
Ragdale Fellow Joyce Owens attended Howard University, B.F.A., and Yale University, M.F.A.; the Chicago State University curator teaches drawing and painting.
She has had exhibits around the world, including: Times Square, N.Y.; NATO headquarters, Brussels, Belgium; U.S. Embassy, Stockholm, Sweden; University of Pennsylvania Museum; Philadelphia Museum of Art; DuSable Museum, Chicago; Koehnline Museum, IL; Spertus Museum, Chicago; and Museum of Greater Lafayette in Indiana, The Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, The Butridge Gallery, Austin Texas, and various Chicago and national galleries.
She has delivered lectures and participated in panels at a wide variety of locations: Art Institute of Chicago, College Art Association, Purdue University, School of the Art Institute, Chicago, Hyde Park Art Center, The Pittsburgh Arts Center, Columbia College Chicago and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs are some.
Her many prizes and honors including those from Artnews critic Margaret Hawkins, Chicago Suntimes, Chicago Gallery News art critic, Kevin Nance, Jon Pounds, artist, CPAG. Joyce has been published in catalogs, books, newspapers, and online reviews and features, and included in public and private national and local collections.
Mkhonto Gwazela
Born in 1985, in Mthatha, Mkhonto Gwazela attended drawing classes under his own father in a rural community where expression through the use of language was limited to isiXhosa. Currently, he is currently studying an M/Tech in studio art at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and has exhibited in the Absa L’Atelier Art Competition in Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg. In 2010, he studied and finished a B/tech in Ceramic Design at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. In 2008, he obtained his National Diploma in Fine art with cum laude and received the prestigious John Steele Award for Excellence in ceramics.
All About That Jazz by Adam Guichard
Adam Guichard is a self-taught artist from the Southside of Chicago. His father, Alfred, brother, Andre, and late cousin, William Dawson influenced Adam’s artistic talent. After he graduated from Howard University in 2000, he decided to pursue a career in art. He has done various art shows around the Chicago area, the United States, Cuba and Europe. Adam uses mixed media to create abstract and 3-Dimensional artworks. Adam also uses glass, cardboard, paper, fiberglass other various materials as a canvas to express his artistic vision. Adam is currently working on seven different series, Nights Over Rio, Jazz, Abstract Jazz, Kaleidoscope, African Romance, Numbers, and Dominican Sunflower series, that emphasize the African-American experience from the Diaspora to the present day.