Born 1942, New Orleans, LA
EDUCATION
1973 M.F.A., Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore
1969 B.A., Southern University, New Orleans, LA
SELECTED AWARDS AND COMMISSIONS
2014 United States Artists Fellowship, James Baldwin Fellow
2013 National Conference of Artists (NCA) Life Time Achievement Award
Artist in Residence, RedLine Milwaukee “Roll With It, Brass Bands in the streets of New Orleans”, Duke University Press
2012 Sculpture Commission, Jimmy Club Sculpture Garden, St. Ann, Louisiana
2011 Artist in Residence, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA)
2009 Artist in Residence, École supérieure des beaux-arts de Nantes, France
2008 The Benjamin Altman Prize, National Academy of Design
2006 The Pollock Krasner Foundation Award
The Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant
2005 Cue Art Foundation Fellowship
2004 The Governor’s Award, State of Louisiana
2002-4 Artist in Residence, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation
2000 Artist in Residence, Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, NM
1997 Commission, Spoffard Juvenile Detention Center, Brooklyn, NY
1996 Louisiana Division of the Arts Artist Fellowship NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority, Arts for Transit, (135th St/Lenox Ave)
Commission, Philadelphia International Airport, Terminal A (Murals)
1995 Municipal Collaborative Project for Downtown Winston-Salem, N.C.
1994 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
1993 John Guggenheim Fellowship (sculpture)
1989-90 New York State Council on the Arts National Endowment for the Arts Visual Art Fellowship
1987 New York Foundation for the Arts Artists Fellowship Award
1985-86 Brandywine Workshop Visiting Artist Fellowship
1984-85 and 1989-90 National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowship Grant
1983 and 1988 Commission, Public Art Fund, Inc., New York, NY
1980-81 Artist in Residence, Henry Street Settlement, New York
1977-78 Artist in Residence, The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY
1976 St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Baltimore, MD, (Sculpture)
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015 Seen and Unseen: Coupling, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Spirit House: Willie Birch, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE
2013 Southern Gothic: An Insider’s View, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA, Crossroads, Bard College for Curatorial Studies (thesis show by Robin Wallis Atkinson)
2010 Looking Back: 1978-2003, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA,
In Search of Sacred Place, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, LA
2006-8 Celebrating Freedom: The Art of Willie Birch, National traveling retrospective (Catalogue)
2002 Somebody’s Child, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Adams, MA,
Transforming Identities, University Art Museum, Joel L. Fletcher Hall, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, LA
2001-02 Willie Birch: 1994-1997, Zora Neal Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts, Eatonville, FL
2001 Black Male, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2000 Free to Be in Black and White and Color, Luise Ross Gallery, New York, NY 1999
1998-99 Transforming Identities, The McKinney Avenue Contemporary Museum, Dallas,TX (traveling)
1998 Spirit House and Recent Work, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE
1997 Dialogues and Heroes, Museum of African American Art, Tampa, FL
1996 From Bertrandville to Brooklyn, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC (traveled to Spoleto Festival, U.S.A., Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC)
Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA
Not Just a Pretty Picture: Urban American Portraits, Satori Fine Art, Chicago, IL
In Search of Heroes? Part I, Luise Ross Gallery, New York, NY
1994 An Urban Perspective, Gallery Joe, Philadelphia, PA
Dialogues, Luise Ross Gallery, New York, NY
1993 Spirit House, Sculpture Center, New York, NY (traveled to Contemporary Culture and Documentary Art, Dallas, TX and Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY)
Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Paa Ya Paa Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya
“Nairobi Series", York College Art Gallery, New York, NY
1992 A Personal View of Urban America, Exit Art, New York, NY (traveled to Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum, Philadelphia, PA)
1991 Affirmations, Sculpture Center, New York, NY
1990 Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA
1988 Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, SUNY College, Old Westbury, NY
1984 Miami-Dade Library, Miami, FL
1979 Tim Blackburn Gallery, New York, NY
1978 NYS Office Building in Harlem Gallery, New York, NY (sponsored by Studio Museum)
1977 New Muse Community Museum of Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY
1975 Art Works Gallery, Baltimore, MD
Institute of Black Ministry, Philadelphia, PA (traveling exhibition)
1968 Southern University, New Orleans, LA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018 Changing Course: Reflecting on New Orleans Histories, New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), New Orleans, LA
2017-2018 Dress Matters: Clothing As Metaphor, Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
2017 Pride of Place: The Making of Contemporary Art in New Orleans, New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), New Orleans, LA
2016-17 Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC and Speed Museum, Lexington, KY (traveling exhibition)
2016 According to What, The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, USA, Saratoga Springs, NY
A New World in My View: Gifts from Gordon W. Bailey, The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
2015-16 Common Ground: African American Art from the Flint Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, and the Muskegon Museum of Art (traveling exhibition)
2015 Ten Years Gone, New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), New Orleans, LA
2014 Viewpoints: 20 years of Adderley, MassArt (Massachusetts College of Art and Design), Boston, MA
2013 Ashé to Amen, African-Americans and Biblical Imagery, Museum of Biblical Art, New York, Ashé Cultural Arts Center, New Orleans, LA (traveling exhibition)
Breaking Ground: Gifts form Katie and Drew Gibson, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
2012 Thenceforward, and Forever Free, Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee
2011 The Human Touch: Contemporary Art from the RBC Wealth Management Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Saint Petersburg, FL (traveling)
Printed Histories: 16 Years of Print Portfolios at Exit Art, Exit Art, New York
2010 The Global Africa Project, the Museum of Arts and Design, New York
2009 High Water Marks, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT.
There Goes the Neighborhood, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH
The American Scene, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE
2008 Prospect.1 New Orleans Biennial, New Orleans, LA
In Katrina’s Wake, Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin, Texas
2007 Katrina: Catastrophe and Catharsis, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, CO
2006-07 Legacies: Contemporary Artists Reflect on Slavery, New York Historical Society, New York, NY
2005 The Chemistry of Color, African-American Artists in Philadelphia 1970-1990, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Other Mainstream: Selections from the Mikki and Stanley Weithorn Collection, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ
2004 Rap: Reflections of Our Time, Barrister’s Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Southern Journeys, Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, LA
2002-04 In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Smithsonian Institute (traveling exhibition)
2003 Modern Story Tellers: Bearden, Birch, Lovell, Ringgold, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
2000 Go Figure, Lew Allen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
The Rutgers SummerFest 2000 Exhibition, New Brunswick, NJ
Culture of Class: Issues of Class in North American Culture, Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD
1999-2000 Outward Bound: American Art at the Brink of the Twenty-First Century, Meridian International Center, Washington, D.C.; cultural exchange project traveling to Asia
1999-2000 Passages: Contemporary Art in Transition, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY (travelling exhibition)
1998 New Orleans Triennial, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
The Colors of Rhythm, The Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
1996-98 Rediscovering the Landscape of the Americas, Santa Fe, NM (traveling)
1995 48th Annual Purchase Exhibition, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
1992 Altars, Divinations and Icons, Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, PA,
1989 The Blues Aesthetic, Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, D.C. curated by Richard Powell, (Traveling)
1989-90 If You Lived Here - Homefront, Dia Art Foundation, New York, NY, curated by Martha Rosler
1987-88 USA Paintworks: Prints from the Brandywine Workshop Collection, United States Information Agency/Arts America (traveling exhibition)
1987 Por Encima Del Bloqueo, (Donación De Artistas Plásticos Norteamericanos Al Pueblo De Cuba) Centro Wilfredo Lam, Havana, Cuba
Camino A Cuba, Museum Universitario do Chopo, Mexico City, Mexico
Contemporary Print Images: Works by Afro-American Artists from the Brandywine
Workshop, Presented by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITE) ‘
Call and Response: Art on Central America, curated by Lucy Lippard, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
1980 Outlaw Aesthetics, Just Above Midtown/Downtown, New York
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, TN
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR
Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami, FL
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Southern University, New Orleans, LA
Speed Museum, Louisville, KY
Temple University, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Tulane University Law School, New Orleans, LA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Xavier University, New Orleans, LA
SELECTED PRINT COLLECTIONS
Bob Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, New York, NY
Tim Blackburn Gallery, New York, NY
Brandywine Workshop, Philadelphia, PA
The Lower East Side Printshop, New York, NY
Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, NM
The Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, New Brunswick, NJ