Biography
Renee Stout grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 1980. In 1985 she moved to Washington, D.C. and began to explore the roots of her African American heritage. She looks to the belief systems of African peoples and their descendants throughout the African Diaspora, as well as to the world and her immediate environment, for the inspiration to create works that encourage self-examination, self-empowerment and self-healing.
The lives of Stout’s imaginary characters unfold in a variety of media, including painting, mixed media sculpture, photography and installation. The recipient of awards from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, Stout has shown her work in solo and group shows throughout the United States, and in England, Russia and the Netherlands.
Collections
Solo Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
Selected Bibliography
Grants and Fellowships
Panel Participation and Teaching Experience
All artwork, photographs and text copyright © Renee Stout. All Rights Reserved
The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The San Francisco Museum of Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
The Achenbach Collection
The Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY
National Museum Of American Art, Washington, DC
University Of Tucson Art Museum, Tucson, AZ
University Art Museum, University of California at Santa Barbara, CA
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
The Beach Museum of Art, Manhattan, KS
The Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Saint Louis Museum of Art, Saint Louis, MO
The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
Moody Gallery, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
The John and Maxine Belger Foundation Collection, Kansas City, KS
Pennsylvania State University, University Park. PA
Wellesley College, MA
Allegheny Community College, Pittsburgh, PA
2007 Journal: Book One, Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington, DC
2006 Church of the Crossroads, The Arts Center, St. Petersburg, FL
2005 Fragments of a Secret Life, Part 2, Hammonds House Galleries, Atlanta, GA
2005 Fragments of a Secret Life, Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington, DC
2005 Readers, Advisors, and Storefront Churches, The Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA
2005 Fatima’s Dreams, Part 2, Dennis Morgan Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2004 Fatima’s Dreams, Barrister’s Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2003 Eyes of Fatima, Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington, DC
2002 Readers, Advisors, and Storefront Churches, The Belger Center for the Arts,
Kansas City, MO, a traveling exhibition.
2001 The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street (titled after De Chirico), David Beitzel Gallery, New York, NY
2000 Monotypes and Other Works, The Beach Museum at Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
1999 Ranting in the Night Studio, The Morgan Gallery, Kansas City, MO
1998 The Ranter, The David Adamson Gallery, Washington, DC
1997 Dueling Dualities, Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, New York, NY
1996 Madam’s Secrets, The David Adamson Gallery, Washington, DC
1995 Dear Robert I’ll See You at the Crossroads: A Project by Renee Stout, University
Art Museum, University of California at Santa Barbara, CA, a traveling exhibition
1993 Astonishment and Power: Kongo Minkisi and the Art of Renee Stout,
The National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
1992 Recent Sculpture, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, PA
1991 Recent Sculpture, BR Kornblatt Gallery, Washington, DC
1987 Chapel Gallery, Mount Vernon College, Washington, DC
2008 PICTURING POLITICS 2008: Artists Speak to Power
Arlington Arts Cente, Arlington, VA
2008 SHE’S SO ARTICULATE:
Black Women Artists Reclaim the Narrative
Arlington Arts Cente, Arlington, VA
2006 The Book as Art: Twenty Years of Artist's Books from The National Museum of Women in the Arts,
The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washingtion, DC
2006 Dangling, Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center, Silver Spring, MD
2006 Paper Trail: African American Works on Paper, High Museum, Atlanta, GA
2006 4 Printmakers/2 Curators, The Washington Printmakers Gallery 2006 Invitational, Washington, DC
2005 Drawn to Representation, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (Corcoran 2005 Print Portfolio Exhibition).
2004 Political Climate, Conner Fine Arts, Washington, DC
2003 Black is a Color: African American Art from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art,
Washington, DC (traveling exhibition)
2000 The View from Here, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
The Likeness of Being: Contemporary Self-Portraits By 60 Women, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY
1999 Secular/Spiritual Identities: The Blues, The University of Florida at Gainesville, Gainesville, FL
Locating the Spirit: Religion and Spirituality in African American Art, The Anacostia Museum,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
1998 The Next Word, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase, NY
Identity Revealed: Meaning and Message in Contemporary Art, The Ackland Museum, Chapel Hill, NC
Crossing Cultures, LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
Resonant Forms: Contemporary African American Women Sculptors, The Anacostia Museum and
Center for African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Postcards from Black America, The De Beyerd Museum, Holland, Netherlands
Seeing Jazz, The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Washington, DC
1997 Searching for the Spiritual, Depree Art Center and Gallery, Hope College, Holland, MI
Pursuit of the Sacred: Envocations of the Spiritual in Contemporary African
American Art, Betty Rymer Gallery, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Biennial Exhibition of Public Art, Neuberger Museum of Art, State University of New York, Purchase, NY
Kaleidoscope: Themes and Perspectives in Recent Art, The national Museum of American Art,
Smithsonian institution, Washington, DC
1996 Wylie Avenue Juke and Effective Sight, College of Charleston, Halsey Gallery
An installation by Renee Stout and an exhibition of paintings by Juan Logan
My Magic Pours Secret Libations, Florida State University, Museum of Fine Arts,
Tallahassee, FL
1995 Inside Visions/ Outside the Mainstream, Horwitch LewAllen Gallery, Santa FE, NM
American Color, Porter Troupe Gallery, San Diego, CA
Fetishism: Visualizing Power and Desire, The South Bank Centre, London, England, a traveling exhibition
1994 Small Works, The David Adamson Gallery, Washington, DC
Metaphysical Metaphors, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Artist’s Sketchbooks, The National Museum of women in the Arts, Washington, DC
Free Within Ourselves, The National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Luxor v1.0, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
1993 ideo-syncretics 2: Diasporic Creolizations, Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York, NY
Collectibles, The LewAllen Gallery, Sante Fe, NM
Touch: Beyond the Visual, Hand Workshop, Richmond, VA
1992 The LewAllen Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
The Migrations of Meaning, INTAR Hispanic American Arts Center, New York, NY
Sites of recollection: Four Altars and a Rap Opera, Williams College Museum of Art,
Williamstown, MA, a traveling exhibition
Houses of Spirit/Memories of Ancestors, Bronx Council on the Arts at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY
Image, Object, Memory, Hand Workshop, Richmond, VA
Present Tense, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WS
1991 Site-seeing: Travel and Tourism in Contemporary Art, The Whitney Museum of
American Art Downtown at Federal Reserve Plaza, New York, NY
Power and Spirit (Renee Stout: Spirit House #2; Fred Wilson: The Other Museum),
The Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC
Gathered Visions: Selected Works of African-American Women Artists, Anacostia
Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Owen-Workman, Michelle A. and Phillips, Stephen Bennett (four essays from Readers, Advisors,and Storefront Churches , exhibition catalogue, The Belger Center fro Creative Studies, Kansas City, MO
Oguibe , Olu, Renee Stout (essay) Fresh Cream: Contemporary Art and Culture, Commissioning editor: Gilda Williams (2000), p. 586
Goodman, Jonathan, Art in America, v.86 (January 1998), p.94
Days- Serwer, Jacqueline, American Kaleidoscope: Themes and Perspectives in Recent Art, National Museum of American Art, 1996, p. 11-12
Roscoe- Hartigan, Linda, Renee Stout (essay from the catalogue for American Kaleidoscope: Themes and Perspectives in Recent Art), National Museum of American Art, 1996, p. 52-59
Berns , Marla C. and George Lipsitz (essay), Dear Robert, I’ll See You at the Crossroads: A Project by Renee Stout, exhibition catalogue, The University Art Museum, The University of California, Santa Barbara
Harris, Michael, The art of Renee Stout, (Astonishment and Power, The National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1993) exhibition catalogue
James, Curtia, Astonishment and Power, Kongo Minkisi and the Art of Renee Stout, Art News, v. 92, (October 1993), p. 171
Mandle , Julia Barnes, and Deborah Menaker Rothschild, eds., Sites of Recollection: Four Altars and a Rap Opera (Williams College of Art, Williamstown, MA, 1992), Exhibition catalogue
Plagens , Peter, Africa Meets the West, Newsweek, February 19, 1990, p. 68
Rubenfeld , Florence, Renee Stout, Arts Magazine, May 1991, p. 79
Thompson, Robert Farris, Illuminating Spirits ‘Astonishment and Power’ at the National Museum of African Art, African Arts, v. 26 (1993), p. 61-69; Betye and Renee: Priestesses of Chance and Medicine, The Migration of Meaning (INTAR Gallery, New York, 1992), exhibition catalogue
Wardlaw , Alvia, Robert v. Rozelle, and Maureen A Mckenna, eds., Black Art, Ancestra Legacy:The African impulse in African American Art (Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, 1989), exhibition catalogue
2006 Artist-in-Residence, College of Visual and Performing Arts, George Mason Uinversity, Fairfax, Virginia
2005 Joan Mitchell Painter’s and Sculptor’s Grant Award
2004 Artist-in-Residence, Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington
2000 Artist-in-Residence, McColl ( Tryon) Center for Visual Art, Charlotte, NC
1999 Pollock Krasner Foundation Award
Anonymous Was A Woman Award
1997 Mayor’s Art Award ( For excellence in an Artistic Discipline, Washington, DC)
1993 The Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Regional
Visual arts Fellowship (sculpture and crafts)
1993 The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award
1991 The Pollock Krasner Foundation Award
1984-85 Artist in Residence, Afro-American Master Artist-in-Residency Program, Boston, MA
2008 Panel, Art School, Confidential: Rethinking Art Education, George Washington University
2007 Judge, The Kentuck Festival of the Arts, Northport, Alabama
2007 Social Justice in Art-Making: Diversity, collaboration, and exchange, Alliance of Artists Communities, Annual Conference
1999 DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (Visual Arts)
1998 Pew Fellowships in the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
1995 National Endowment for the Arts (panelist for organizations and publications)
1993-94 DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (Visual Arts)
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Visiting Professor, The University of Georgia, at Athens, GA, Spring Quarter (April – June 1995), one undergraduate painting course and one graduate painting seminar