Keepsakes Featured at College of Wooster Art Museum

Delita Martin’s series with Highpoint Editions titled Keepsakes will be on display during the College of Wooster Art Museum’s exhibition COLLECT: New Acquisitions from January 30th through April 30th, 2024.

COLLECT: New Acquisitions celebrates the generous contributions of donors to the Art Museum over the past five years. From the earliest years of the College, alumni and affiliates have supported its teaching and learning mission with gifts of art, artifacts, and funds. Donations comprise the greatest part of the Art Museum’s collection; each tells a story about the collectors, their interests, and their relationships to the college.

Update: On March 26th a talk was held to discuss Keepsakes led by Dr. Brittney S. Miles followed by an opportunity for attendees and students to take part in the acquisition decision for the College to purchase one the the seven portraits.

“At the end of the talk, sticky notes were distributed, and guests were encouraged to place their note on the wall beside the portrait that they liked the most. These votes would help with the College’s decision of which piece to purchase. It was difficult to choose, as each of the seven faces perfectly represented its own facet of childhood that would be worth adding to a permanent display. One girl was thoughtful and quiet. Another wore a playful smirk. Still another portrait smiled a toothy grin, eyebrows raised and eyes widened in that familiar expression of pure, youthful excitement. I would be happy to see any one of the pieces become a part of The College of Wooster Art Museum. Some will see the chosen print as a beautiful piece of art with stunning embroidery detail. For others it may serve as a mirror, reflecting the complex and funny and innocent memories of youth — the keepsakes of Black girlhood.” -Amanda Crouse in her article Reclaiming Black Girlhood and Innocence Through Art

Read more about the exhibition and the College of Wooster Art Museum here.

Delita Martin Retrospective at U of Texas at San Antonio

This solo exhibition titled, Delita Martin: Her Temple of Everyday Familiars, A Retrospective, features the work of Delita Martin, a world-renowned master printmaker known for creating representations of black women in complex and luxuriant narrative portraits. These images draw in viewers to experience unexpected and evocative perspectives and the majesty in the often-hidden spirits of the everyday. This exhibition features a retrospective of the artist’s career including works produced in her adolescence, an interactive installation, and recent work.

Curated by Aissatou Sidime-Blanton .

The exhibition is on view at the Russell Hill Rogers Galleries at the University of Texas at San Antonio from January 26 - March 22, 2024.

Read more about the exhibition here!

Images by Patrick Buckner Photography.

Keepsakes, a new suite by Delita Martin

Joyce, 2021, Edition of 20

Lithography with collagraph and hand stitching

29" x 41 ½"

Named after a sister.

We are honored to be able to announce the completion of a suite of seven prints by artist Delita Martin. Martin's use of color, pattern and portraiture is powerful, and these incredibly (perhaps deceptively) tender pieces capture the same persistent and confrontational energy characteristic of her larger body of work.

Over the pandemic, Highpoint Editions worked with Martin to ship pieces back and forth, making progress remotely. Because of the size of this suite and the edition — making 140 prints in total — each one stitched by hand with embroidery thread, Martin recruited women from her area in Huffman, TX to assist with the stitching. She describes what became a kind of quilting bee, wherein she felt honored to be surrounded by these women’s conversation, let in on a time honored tradition and bestowed with community wisdom. Contributing sewists include: Sandra Sayles, Wilma J. Evans, Georgia Harper and Sandy Patterson.

The suite is available for purchase now. Please click HERE for pricing. Email alex@highpointprintmaking.org with questions!

Ann, 2021, Edition of 20

Lithography with collagraph and hand stitching

29" x 41 ½"

Named after a longtime friend of the artist.

From the artist:

Keepsakes is a series of prints that look beyond the surface of objects at the memories they hold. Their purpose is to preserve the childhood of young Black girls and act as mementos of innocence. In this way, Keepsakes is a direct act against “adultification”, a perspective where adults view Black girls as less than innocent and more adult-like, ripping away their innocence and replacing it with labels such as “disruptive”, “loud” or “manipulative”. These labels often result in their mistreatment. 

This varied series shows portraits of little Black girls peering from the folds of vintage christening gowns. Such gowns, typically a shade of white symbolize innocence and purity in the Christian doctrine that teaches all men were created blameless and free of sin. However the dresses in these works are slightly yellowed signifying the passage of time and suggesting that perhaps such notions are not equally applied. 

Personal objects have long been a reflection of memory, personal and cultural identity. The dresses in this series act as repositories for both memory and identity. 

Trina, 2021, Edition of 20

Lithography with collagraph and hand stitching

29" x 41 ½"

Named after a sister.

Karen, 2021, Edition of 20

Lithography with collagraph and hand stitching

29" x 41 ½"

Named after a sister.

Delita Martin is an artist currently based in Huffman, Texas. She received a BFA in drawing from Texas Southern University and a MFA in printmaking from Purdue University. Formerly a member of the fine arts faculty at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Martin is currently working as a full-time artist in her studio, Black Box Press. 

Primarily working from oral traditions, along with vintage and family photographs as a source of inspiration, Martin’s work explores the power of the narrative impulse.

Her finished works combine collaging, drawing, painting, printmaking and sewing techniques, placing her figures amid patterns to visually represent what it looks like when we become the spiritual other: when we pray or meditate … we enter the “veilscape.” Martin's layering of technique and material, as well as her use of pattern and color, signifies a liminal space – the space between the waking life and the spirit life. By fusing this visual language with oral storytelling in this different space she offers other identities and other narratives for women of color.