Bio
Bryant Portwood is a contemporary figurative painter living and working out of Charlotte, NC. Bryant received his BA in studio art with an art history minor from Centre College and his MFA in painting with an anatomy minor from the New York Academy of Art. He has exhibited work along the East coast from Sugarlift Gallery in New York City to the Miami Oriental as part of Miami Art Week. He received the Founder’s Scholarship at Centre College and the Academy Scholar Award at NYAA.
Statement
My work combines visual elements from my childhood with kitsch elements of pop culture to influence the viewer’s perception of the past and address escapism through false, idealized memories. Following the start of the pandemic, I began to stray away from depicting the figure as the focus of my work and started to lean on trinkets as my subject of choice. We place value in ordinary, mundane objects. Personal objects can hold significant meaning where they serve as a reminder and are nostalgic, or they serve as an enabler for our imagination to take over and urge escapist desires. I’ll admit it, I paint a lot of toys. Not only do they serve as an extension of my personality, but they are objects that I have found a nostalgic comfort in. However, there is a certain blurriness to all the fond memories I have, and I try to echo that surreal quality in my paintings as if everything I have experienced thus far has had an impact on shaping these selective memories. My saturated color palette mimics the vibrancy of commercial advertisements, comics, memes, film, and other saturated images that I have been bombarded with. The fact that I am regurgitating all of these as influences creates an ambiguous feeling where my work can be dreamlike, funny, or even dark. With my classical training, I aim to pay homage to the past through the physical process and techniques of painting, while adding my own contribution to the conversation through my use of color and my tendency to paint unorthodox subjects.
Education
Bryant Portwood received his BA at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, where he studied fine art and art history. He received his MFA in painting and anatomy from the New York Academy of Art.
Location
Bryant is currently living and working out of Charlotte, NC
ArtPop Cities Program Class of 2023
https://www.artpopstreetgallery.com
I am excited to be included as one of twenty artist in the ArtPop Cities Program. My Painting "This Town is a Fishbowl" will be prominently features across my hometown of Charlotte, NC on billboards and other outdoor and indoor advertising spaces.
The #ArtPopCLT Cities Program is an annual juried-in exhibition with a twist: the gallery is your entire city. Selected artists receive thousands of dollars in public media space, educational opportunities, features at artist events, and more - all to foster sustainable careers in the arts and to make art accessible to all.
CV
BRYANT HILL PORTWOOD
bryantportwoodart@gmail.com
https:www.bryantportwood.com
Instagram: Bryantportwoodart
EDUCATION
- MFA in Painting, Anatomy Track, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY, 2019
- BA in Painting, Art History Minor, Centre College, Danville, KY, 2017
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Adjunct Professor, Central Piedmont Community College
January 2022-Present
-Drawing I and Painting I
Visual Arts Instructor, The Arts Center forl All
January-August 2022
-Worked with students ranging from middle school through private adult classes
Temporary Art Teacher, The Arts Center For All,
2021 (October-December)
Teaching Assistant and Monitor, painting, The Art Students League of New York, 2020 Contemporary Narrative Painting, Marshall Jones
Teaching Assistant and Monitor, Painting, The Art Students League of New York, 2019 Contemporary Narrative Painting, Marshall Jones
Class Monitor, Painting, The Art Students League of New York, 2019 (June-August) Painting the Figure From Life, Marshall Jones
Class Monitor, Painting, The Art Students League of New York, 2018 (June-August) Painting the Figure From Life, Marshall Jones
GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND INSTALLATIONS
2022 Art Pop Cities Program, Class of 2023, Charlotte, NC
2022 Winter Juried Exhibition (Won 1st Place), Charlotte Art League, Charlotte,
NC
2022 Botched, Southend Arts, Charlotte, NC
2022 100 Tiny Things, Charlotte International Arts Festival, Charlotte, NC
2022 Benefit Art Sale, The McColl Center for Art and Innovation, Charlotte, NC
2021 Blue Review Art Prize-Honorable Mention, Sugarlift Gallery, New York, NY
2021 Metamorphose, Gallery C3, Charlotte,NC
2021 Memento Mori, Sugarlift Gallery, New York, NY
2020 Deck The Walls, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2020 Benefit Art Sale, The McColl Center for Art and Innovation, Charlotte, NC
2020 Artists for Artists (Formerly Take Home A Nude), Sotheby’s and The New York Academy of art, New York, NY
2020 Birds For Sofia, Sugarlift Gallery, New York, NY
2020 Summer Exhibition 2020, online exhibition, New York Academy of Art, Flowers Gallery, New York, NY
2020 Life Under the Pandemic Moon, online exhibition, curated by Hugo
Bastidas, The Art Students League of New York
2020 Art Apart online exhibition, The Art Students League of New York
2020 The Alumni Association of the New York Academy of Art Online Gallery, Artrepreneur.com
2019 Deck The Walls, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2019 Bliss Art Miami, curated by Helena Christenson, Miami Oriental, Miami Art Week, Miami, FL
2019 Stellar, Raw Artists, New York, NY
2019 Summer Exhibition 2019, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2019 Apperception: Painting, drawing, and sculpture: Copying at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2019 Tribeca Ball, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2019 Tribeca Ball Online Preview, Paddle8
2019 New York Academy of Art at Di Donna Gallery, Di Donna Gallery, New York, NY
2019 Art for the Park, Extravaganza Depot, Charlotte, NC
2018 Deck The Walls, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2018 Metropolitan Museum of Art Copyist Program, Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, NY
2018 Tough Cookie, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2018 Summer In The City, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2018 Tribeca Ball, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2017 Deck The Walls, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2017 Penland School of Crafts exhibition, Penland, NC
2017 Centre College Senior Show (upcoming May), Centre College,
Danville, KY
2017 RICE Exhibition, Centre College, Danville, KY
2016 SOFA Exhibition, Kentucky State of Fine Arts, Georgetown College, Lexington, KY
2016 RICE Exhibition, Centre College, Danville, KY
2016 NYAA Summer Undergraduate Residency Program Show, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2016 McColl Center for Art and Innovation Member Show, Charlotte, NC 2015 Penland School of Crafts exhibition, Penland, NC
PUBLICATIONS & Media
2022 Create Magazine Print Issue #33 curated by Dina Brodsky
2020 This Quarantine Life: A Comic Anthology, The Art Students League of New York
2020 Coronart, Ludvig Rage Club
2020 Comic Artists Depict Covid-19 Era in ‘This Quarantine Life’,
The Wall Street Journal, 23 Nov 2020
2020 Here’s Your First Look at The Art Students League’s Pandemic
Themed Graphic Novel, Out Friday, Comicbook.com, 11 Nov 2020
2020 ‘Artists for Artists”: New York Academy of Art New Fall Gala, Juxtapoz, 26 Oct 2020
2020 Dreamlike Figure Paintings by Bryant Portwood, Create Magazine, 14 Oct 2020
2020 Artists of Instagram: Meet painter Bryant Portwood, Allarts, 18 Sep 2020
RESIDENCIES AND WORKSHOPS
2018 Vincent Desiderio Master Class, New York Academy of Art, 2 Day
Workshop
2017 Linden Frederick Master Class, New York Academy of Art
2017 Penland School for Crafts summer 2 week session
Figurative Ceramics, Kensuke Yamada
2016 NYAA Summer Undergraduate Residency Program
New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
2015 Penland School for Crafts summer 2 week session
Glass Blowing, Che Rhodes
SCHOLARSHIP AND AWARDS
2021 Blue Review Art Prize, Honorable Mention
2019 Professional Mentorship Program
Mentee to Alyssa Monks
2019 Katherine Chapin Memorial Fund recipient
2017-2019 New York Academy of Art, Academy Scholar Award
2013-2017 Centre College, Founders Scholarship