Cheryl D. Edwards is an African American artist and was born in Miami Beach, Florida. In the 1980s she studied drawing and painting under Ernest Crichlow at the Art Student League in New York City. In the art-making practice of Cheryl Edwards, creative investigative inquiry is inspired by familiar sources: human and political condition, spirituality and mythology, cultural custom and patterns; and place. In the absence of the former (manifestations of energy), the physical aspects of place remain.
Her medium is painting, mixed media and printmaking. She is currently represented by Susanne Junggeburth Gallery (Dusseldorf, Germany) (www.us-arts.de)
Cheryl received a Fellowship Award from the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities in 2015. The Fellowship consisted of an honorarium and a group exhibition in the gallery located at the Commission.
Cheryl received an Artist Residency in 2015 at the Experimental Institute of Printmaking located at the Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. The residency was for one week, which included housing, food, printmaking facilities and supplies; along with two (the Deputy Director of EPI, and a printmaking Intern) printmaking expert assistants.
In 2016, she received an ART CART fellowship from The Research Center for Arts and Culture (RCAC). RCAC provides data and ideas for applied research, education, advocacy, policy making, and action. ART CART addresses these challenges by providing aging artists with direct, hands-on support and guidance to manage and preserve their life’s work, and by providing students with an intergenerational, educational experience and mentorship in the preservation of artistic legacy. Over the course of an academic year, several teams of students, each working with a single visual artist, will document a substantial number of works – collecting both high-quality digital images as well as relevant historical, biographical, and artistic background information. Cheryl received software entitled Embark to document her work up to 1,000 images; an honorarium, an intern and assistant for one year to accomplish this goal. The program resulted in an group exhibit at the Katzen Museum of Arts at American University, a published catalogue, an oral history recording and her images of her work are all housed at the Academic Commons at Columbia University. She was able to document up to 207 images of her work during the project but still has the software and is continuing to document the entire body of artwork.
In 2017, she became a Board member of The Studio Visit (TSV). TSV is a web journal that is vetted and curated by a team and contributors. TSV has a dedicated focus on contemporary visual artists with the mission to advocate, collaborate, connect, and educate by supporting the importance of the artist’s place in society through their studio practice and process. TSV’s philosophy supports the idea that promoting the artist from the studio perspective leads to greater understanding and appreciation of the artistic process, the role of the artist, and in turn, the art object. This intimate first-person view into the artistic process cultivates familiarity and appreciation of the intellectual and technical processes of art making.
TSV functions as a conduit and serves its audience as a welcoming place in which to discover emerging, mid-career and established contemporary artists. It encourages national and international networking among area artists, art organizations, museums, and galleries as well as with wider ranging global art communities: connecting creators, curators, writers, and patrons while maintaining a collaborative and innovative spirit. TSV is based in the Washington D.C. area and expanded its presence to Berlin, Germany in 2015. While many of the artists are from either of these regions, we continue to expand our featured artists to represent all areas of the globe.
This past 2017, TSV launched a Berlin Art Fellowship Award. The award supports D.C. area artists from historically disadvantaged backgrounds to become a resident at the Takt Artist Residency for one month over the summer.
In 2018, Cheryl accepted an invitation to serve as a Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of the David C. Driskell Center for the Arts located at the University of Maryland. The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park, honors the legacy of David C. Driskell – Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Art, Artist, Art Historian, Collector, Curator, and Philanthropist – by preserving the rich heritage of African American visual art and culture. Established in 2001, the Center provides an intellectual home for artists, museum professionals, art administrators, and scholars, who are interested in broadening the field of African Diasporic studies. The Driskell Center is committed to collecting; documenting, and presenting African American art as well as replenishing and expanding the field.
Also, in 2018 Cheryl accepted an invitation to serve as an Advisor to the Washington Sculptor Group. It is a non-profit corporation founded in 1984. It’s mission is to promote an awareness and an understanding of sculpture and foster the exchange of ideas among sculptors, collectors, and the general public by organizing frequent events, including artists’ panels, presentations, workshops, and social gatherings. WSG, singly and in cooperation with other organizations, plans, manages and promotes important curated exhibitions in galleries, museums and alternative spaces in the Washington area and beyond. Its Board of Directors and volunteer committees, along with its nearly 400 members – sculptors, collectors, curators, and others interested in sculpture, carry out the work of WSG. WSG received the Mayor’s Arts Award for Excellence in Service to the Arts in 2004.
Cheryl’s work is in the permanent collection of the District of Columbia Art and Humanities Commission Art Bank, Baker and McKenzie Law Firm, Inova Schar Cancer Center, District of Columbia General Services Administration and the David C. Driskell Center for the Arts at the University of Maryland.
Website
http://cheryl-edwards.pixels.com
