portfolio gallery &
education center

Missouri Valley Impressionist Society's:
4th Annual National Juried Art Show

Saturday, March 21 to
Saturday, May 16
Artists Reception: Saturday, May 16, 2015 from 4-7 pm

The Missouri Valley Impressionist Society was organized to promote the appreciation and development of Impressionism in and around the Missouri River Valley Region. That region being comprised of the following states: Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. Membership is comprised of active artists from across the U.S., ranging from successful professionals to those just beginning their disciplined pursuit into the realm of the study of painting and drawing. The group was begun in October, 2011 with four founding members: Jeffery Sparks, Greg Summers, Brent Seevers, and Rachel Mindrup. Over thirty Charter members are the foundation of the society and serve as the anchor to help new members with joining and participating. The MVIS allows those who work in Impressionism to paint and exhibit together and is one of the few organizations in the Midwest that embraces the method of painting en plein air, a method the Impressionists are able to call their own. The organization encourages, hosts, and sponsors plein air paint outs as well as atelier sessions, workshops, plein air competitions, and exhibitions throughout the year.

For more information contact Brent Seevers at (816) 885-7230 or visit missourivalleyimpressionistsociety.com.

SPECIAL EXHIBITION
Hands Up, Don't Shoot: Artists Respond

Frieda Wheaton, Mourning in America, mixed media, at 10th Street Gallery

Opening reception at Portfolio Gallery:
Friday, October 17, 2014 from 5-7 pm
Exhibit runs through December 20, 2014

The Alliance of Black Art Galleries presents receptions and exhibitions across the St. Louis area - Portfolio Gallery being among the presenters. 100 artists from across the nation are participating, interpreting events stemming from the August 9, 2014 killing of Michael Brown.
> See more information describing all venues and times

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Watercolor Masters

Opening reception:
Saturday, October 11, 2014 from 7-9 pm
Exhibit runs through Friday, November 28, 2014

Dean Mitchell, Return for Honor, watercolor	Leroy Allen, Contemplation, watercolor	Lonnie Powell, Persistance, watercolor

Signature members Dean Mitchell, Lonnie Powell and Leroy Allen will exhibit original and limited edition painting that have allowed them to sign their names/paintings as members of the National Watercolor Society. The National Watercolor Society is a nonprofit membership organization that began in 1866 to promote the art of watercolor painting in America. We are pleased to present theses three artist that have been the foundation of 25 years of exhibiting award winning art at Portfolio Gallery in Grand Center Arts District.
Free and open to the public

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Women & Wardrobe: The Riehl Collection

Opening reception:
Saturday, August 2, 2014 from 7-9 pm
Exhibit runs through Friday, September 26, 2014

Moments: The Time of Your Life - photographs by Maurice Meredith

Maurice Merideth, photograph, Judge Nathan B. Young, Congressman William L. Clay and State Senator John Bass

Opening reception:
Saturday, April 5, 2014 from 7-9 pm
Exhibit runs through May, 30 2014

A St. Louis 250 Celebration event!

A showcase of photographs by St. Louis master photographer, Maurice Meredith. The photographic exhibit and sale will highlight the many celebrated citizens of St. Louis, Missouri and the world, that Maurice has photographed over his 30+ years as a photographer. Become his Friend at www.facebook.com to view some of his photographs.

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Zydecho by Synthia Saint James

Dr. Synthia Saint James

The art of Dr. Synthia Saint James
will be on display and sell during the months of March, April and May 2014.
A 25% discount is available on all framed, limited edition Giclees’ on canvas.

HEC-TV Presents:
The Creative World of Synthia Saint James

See YouTube presentation

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Ebony Creations

Opening reception January 10, 2014 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.
Presented by Portfolio Gallery in collaboration with Edwardsville Arts Center.
Exhibit runs through through February 28, 2014.

Free and open to the public.
Edwardsville Arts Center is located at 6165 Center Grove Road, Edwardsville, IL 62025.
See directions to Edwardsville Art Center.

1/16/2014 - The Edwardsville Intelligencer -
EAC (Edwardsville Art Center) to host Ebony Creations

1/9/2014 - St. Louis Public Radio -
Edwardsville Center Showcases African-American Art Through St. Louis’ Portfolio Gallery

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Reclamation

Opening reception on Saturday,
Febuary 9, 2013,
from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.

The Reclamation Arts project is multimedia, conceptual Art, exploration of the social and historical legacy of St. Louis documented through visual art and music. Catalyzed by a desire to breathe new life into the nearly, or seemingly forgotten alcoves of our great city we stretch the bounds of Creative Recycling. We collect media & materials from all aspects of life in St. Louis. Combining images, sounds and debris from our environment in new ways; in effort to elicit a paradigm shift in the collective reception and understanding of St. Louis. We have honed our creative lenses on the expansive facets of beauty that rest beneath the layers of disremembered history and architectural decay. We Reclaim all of our materials directly from our environment, Revealing and renewing their true inner beauty that was once nearly forgotten. From abandoned wood, broken bricks, stray books, bikes, clothes and forgotten furniture we re-spect (look again) & Reclaim.
See related stories:
The St. Louis American
St. Louis Magazine

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Dark Girls

Dark Beauties by Robert Hale

Photography exhibition
Opening reception on Friday,
May 11, 2012,
from 5:00 to 9:00 pm.
Exhibit runs through Tuesday,
July 31, 2012.

Sometime ago I came across the movie documentary by Bill Duke and D.Channsin Berry, which explores the deep-seated biases and attitudes about skin color particularly dark skinned women, outside of and within the Black American culture. This exhibit focuses on the "Dark Girls" within our world community and seeks to show the Beauty that is often over looked by mainstream publications.

Please visit officialdarkgirlsmovie.com to view our motivation for the "Dark Girls" exhibit.

Also see other related links:
YouTube
Facebook

Gallery Talk: Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Discussion led by Kimberly Norwood, Washington University School of Law, Professor of Law & of African American Studies. We will discuss the "Dark Girls” exhibit and her forth coming new book,
Color Matters: Skin Tone Bias and the Myth of a Post-Racial Americ.

What are your attitudes about "skin tone?"
Saint Louis University researchers are studying this topic. You may participate by taking their survey exploring this topic. Take the survey.

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Robert Hale: Intimate Encounters – “The African-Americans”

Robert Hale, photograph, The Reverend Louis Farrakan

Robert Hale, photographer/journalist
Opening reception on Saturday,
October 22, 2011,
from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.
Exhibit runs through
January 15, 2011.

Portfolio's offering as part of the
American Arts Experience: St. Louis

Robert Hale is one of the West Coast’s leading photographers. His work both as a photographer and as a journalist, has taken him on assignment throughout the world. His images are characterized by clarity and simplicity, with an extraordinary eye for light and shadow. Whether animate or inanimate, Robert feels his subjects have an inner essence, and, if handled with patience and sensitivity, this essence will reveal itself. His goal is to allow it to live in prints.

Robert Hale, photograph, Gordon Parks – artist & photographer

Robert, whose father is both a photographer and jazz pianist, developed his interest while still a boy growing up in Roanoke, Virginia. After graduating from high school and serving in Vietnam, he studied photography under Adrian Wagner and Hal Jordan at Los Angeles City College. He then moved to Sweden where he worked as a photographer in Stockholm. Upon his return to the United States in the mid 1970’s, he felt the need for greater security in his life and turned from photography to a career in advertising.

Although he spent the next 20 years building a successful career as an account executive, he describes this time as “years in which I had lost my courage.” It wasn’t until he reached his middle years that he determined to devote himself fully to passion of his youth. Since making that decision in 1996, his progress in the world of photography has been phenomenal.

Robert’s images have been printed in such publications as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice, The LA Weekly, Black Enterprise, and a variety of national and international publications. He is currently the Directors Guild of America’s photographer. Mr. Hale has been proud to volunteer his photographic services to the Los Angeles Children’s Museum, Aids Project Los Angeles, LA Shanti, Aids service Center in Pasadena, California, as well as serving on the board of Directors for The Black Gallery Group, Los Angeles, California.

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Selections

Dean Mitchell's watercolor, Return for Honor, available as a limited edition print.

April 4 – May 31, 2011
Featuring artist from St. Louis, Missouri,
the Region and the Nation.
Opening reception May 20, 2011
from 5:00 to 9:00 pm

Monday, Wednesday & Friday, 9:00 - 5:00 pm.
Tuesday & Thursday by appointment.
314-533-3323

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Portfolio at Maryville University

February 2 – 26, 2011
Selection of work by artists represented by
Portfolio Gallery at Maryville University
Curated by Robert A. Powell

Morton J. May Gallery, Maryville University (Get Directions)
650 Maryville University Drive
St. Louis, MO 63141

Hours: Mon-Thur-7:30AM to 11:00PM, Friday 7:30AM to 6:00PM
Saturday, 10:00AM to 6:00PM, Sunday,11:00AM to 10:00PM

Featuring the art of: Charles Bibbs, Ronald Johnson, Dean Mitchell, Lonnie and Robert A. Powell

For more information call: 314-529-9381

Psychiatry: An Industry of Death

February 5 through February 26, 2011
Opening reception Saturday, February 5, 2011 from 1:00 to 5:00 pm

STATE-OF-THE-ART TOURING EXHIBIT EXPOSES PSYCHIATRY
With mounting drug regulatory agency warnings, a new exhibit exposes thousands of child deaths from psychiatric drugs in U.S.

Join the psychiatric watchdog group Citizens Commission on Human Rights of St. Louis (CCHR) (CCHRSTL.ORG) to open a chillingly informative exhibit, “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death.” Free to the public, it warns about the more than 100,000 deaths in psychiatric institutions around the world each year and over 15,000 deaths of children taking psychiatric drugs in the United States.

The exhibit, which is being shown internationally in more than 30 countries, depicts human rights abuses by psychiatry and carries statements from health professionals, academics, legal and human rights experts, and victims of psychiatric brutalities. It traces the origins of psychiatry, the role psychiatrists have played in the oppression of blacks and minorities, the roots of their eugenics programs and the pivotal part they played in the Holocaust. It also reveals how psychiatric drugs are behind the spate of school shooting sprees and how millions of federal dollars allocated to screen American schoolchildren for “mental disorders” could increase both child deaths and acts of school violence. The Food and Drug Administration has warned that psychiatric drugs prescribed to children could cause aggression, hostility, psychosis, mania, homicide, suicide and death.

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Visions 2010

Lonnie Powell, Acknowledgement, pastel drawing

A group show featuring:
Dean Mitchell, Lonnie Powell, Charles Bibbs, Dr. Carolyn L. Mazloomi, Nedra Bonds, Keina Davis Elswick and others

October 1 through November 30, 2010

Hours:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday 9-5
Tuesday, Thursday by appointment.
Please telephone 314.533.3323
to arrange appointments.

Always free & open to the public

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	Altheria Johnson, clay vessel

The Other Side of Me

Art from the Second Chance Studio

Presented by Portfolio Gallery & Employment Connection

August 27 through
September 10, 2010

It is evident that persons with prison records still face many, many challenges in their efforts to overcome discrimination, stereotypes, and full integration for social acceptance. Strides have been made. Time has been taken. Resources have been allocated. Money has been spent. But, the truth remains — employment discrimination against ex-convicts remains firm, and full integration has simply not occurred.

Portfolio Gallery and Employment Connection, value life-long learning of all persons, and recognizes that many ex-offenders are quite worthy of a second chance. Portfolio plans to give them that second chance by teaching them how to use their skills in the visual arts, such as drawing, painting, sculpting, pottery, and high end crafts. The intent is to provide them with self-sufficiency skills and a desire to use their creative talents. “Art is this wonderful activity that allows everyone to express themselves with their own voice and we have some great voices in the program” said Robert A. Powell, of the
Second Chance Studio.

“Creating art is something that I always wanted to do and the Second Chance Studio provides the venue and supplies for me to do so” said Altheria Johnson, artist of the Second Chance studio.

All dressed up & can't go anywhere, Delores Stith-Rutlin

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St. Louis Photographers’ Showcase: “Portraits”

June 25 through August 7, 2010
Closing reception Friday,
August 7, 2010 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm

Featuring the work of Roscoe Crenshaw, Maurice Meredith, Wiley Price, Marilyn Robinson, Anita Santiago & Delores Stith-Rutlin.

These six St. Louis photographers express kindred feelings in their art and offer a wonderful opportunity to view original images of St. Louis, everyday people, jazz musicians, and even the President of the United States, Barack Obama.

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Fundraiser for the victims of the Haiti earthquake

Friday, June 25, 4:30 to 8:30 pm (minimum donation of $20)
Saturday, June 26, 10:00 am to 4:30 pm (minimum donation of $10)

Marylin Robinson, color photograph

Local African-American
photographers including;
Carl Bruce, Roscoe Crenshaw, Maurice Meredith, Wiley Price,
Marilyn Robinson, Anita Santiago & Deloris Stith-Rutlin

Friday Opening Reception features Haitian music & Caribbean refreshments.

All donations collected and a portion of all sales will be donated to the St. Louis Salvation Army Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund.

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The Light in the Other Room

March 20 through April 30, 2010
Opening reception Saturday, March 20, 2010 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm

Ben Mercer's Notable Black Woman

A group show by
the Kansas City
Artist Collaborative

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Lonnie Powell

November 6, 2009 through Januray 8, 2010
Opening reception for the artist, Friday, November 6 from 5:00 to 8:00 pm

Queen Mother , watercolor by Lonnie Powell

Lonnie Powell is a graduate of Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Missouri where he was privileged to study under the guidance of the late James Dallas Parks whose influence spread well beyond the sphere of art.

Lonnie's occupations have ranged from dishwasher at the Villa Capri Restaurant to Xerox Sales Representative, but the vast majority of his career has been as an art teacher in the Kansas City Missouri School District.

Though he is not presently a member, he is a charter board member and past president of The Black Archives of Mid-America and a cofounder of Euphrates Gallery.

Persistence, pastel on canvas, by Lonnie Powell

He is a current member and past president of the Friends of Bruce R. Watkins Culture Heritage Center.

Also Lonnie is president and founder of, The Light In The Other Room, a collaborate of twenty-two, African American Kansas City based artists.

As an African American artist (raised in Kansas City Missouri), it did not take long to see that he did not have the luxury of being just an artist. On the contrary, he had to be all things related to art and African American art. He had to be an art educator, an art critic, an art agent, a gallery operator, an art booster, a pickup and delivery man and anything else that might pop up. He humbly refers to himself as an art activist.

Lonnie has always sought to keep his art separate from his occupation so that his art was free of financial influences. This separation of art and money allowed him to steer clear of the trends, traps and compromises begrudgingly faced by many of his contemporaries. Although, this course proved to be less lucrative, the art remains true to his heart and shall remain so.

He never refers to his art as his work. His art is not work, his art is his very self and therefore, cannot be separated from the rest of his life.

He has shown in and around his beloved city of Kansas City, Missouri in many venues including solo and group exhibits at: The Ethnic Art Gallery, The Central Exchange, The Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center and Museum, and The American Jazz Museum's Changing Gallery to name a few.

He has exhibited at a number of area universities including: Park University, Parkville, Missouri, Western Missouri University, St. Joseph, Missouri, Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Missouri and Rockhurst University, Kansas City, Missouri where he spent a year (1969-1970), as an artist in residence.

He has had art accepted in competitions at: The Portfolio Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri, The Atlanta Life Insurance Company's African American National Art Competition and Exhibition, Atlanta, Georgia, The Black Arts Festival, Dayton, Ohio, The Plaza Art Fair, Kansas City, Missouri, and The St. Louis Art Fair, Clayton, Missouri. He is an award winning, Signature Member of The National Watercolor Society. His art is in numerous private collections as well as the corporate collections of Sprint Corporation, The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and The American Jazz Museum.

He has art in The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum's traveling exhibition, Shades Of Greatness, which is currently touring galleries and museums across the country. In 2005 his watercolor painting, South Sun, received the coveted, Donor's Award C, from the 85th National Watercolor Society.

In the December, 2006, Watercolor Magic Magazine, named him as one of the "Ones To Watch." In June, 2008 he received the "First Place, Patrons Choice award in the First Annual Lakewood Oaks Exhibit in Lee's Summit, MO.

Lonnie and his wife, Brenda, have been married for forty years. They have a son, Gregory, a daughter-law, Tava and a granddaughter Jaden.

> See related article on Lonnie Powell, and Kansas native Dean Mitchell.

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The Art of Charles A. Bibbs

July 24 through September 30, 2009
Opening reception for the artist, Friday, July 24 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Gallery talk Saurday, July 25 from 3:00 to 5:00 pm

"Sweet Harvest"

Charles Bibbs is an accomplished fine artist, entrepreneur and philanthropist who has always believed we are the keepers of our culture. As such, Bibbs spends much of his time working to develop a cohesive, energized African American community. Charles Bibbs’ artwork fuses African American and Native American cultural themes to make powerful cross-cultural statements. His work is thought provoking and capable of arousing strong emotions that cross ethnic, gender and generational barriers. His artistic renderings convey a deep sense of spirituality, majesty, dignity, strength and grace. However his works are viewed or whatever individual emotions they may evoke, they remain characteristically and recognizably Bibbs. “My most important goal is to make profound aesthetic statements that are ethnically rooted, and at the same time arouse spiritual emotions within us.”

Bibbs has also founded a number of organizations and businesses to help in the growth of African American artistic expression such as: Art 2000, Art on Tour, Images Magazine and the Inland Empire Music and Arts Foundation. Charles Bibbs’ own corporation, B Graphics and Fine Arts, Inc., is recognized as one of the leading publishers and distributors of beautiful African American images. “For many years, we have introduced nothing but the best quality and technically advanced prints to our customers.”