Curlee Raven Holton Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1951 -

My work as an artist is based on both public and a private narrative. The public narrative has led to a commentary on issues that impact society in general including race, poverty, political concerns, isolation and class. My private narrative pushes me further and presents my personal negotiation of these same issues and frequently confronts ramifications that are more intimate in their nature.

My sense of humanity and my consciousness as a thinking and feeling being, have led me to explore topics that are painful, personal, and that at times show man’s indifference to others. As an artist I have attempted to communicate this awareness in an intellectual and sensual manner.”

Curlee Raven Holton is a printmaker and painter whose work has been exhibited professionally for over 25 years in more than 30 one-person shows and more than 80 groups shows. His exhibitions have included prestigious national and international venues such as Egypt’s 7th International Biennale, Taller de arts Plasticas Rufino Tamayo in Oaxaca, Mexico, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Holton earned his M.F.A. with honors from Kent State University and his B.F.A. from the Cleveland Institute of Fine Arts in Drawing and Printmaking. Since 1991 he has taught printmaking and African American art history at Lafayette Collage in Easton, Pennsylvania and is also the founding director of the Experimental Printmaking Institute.

Holton’s work is in many private and public collections including the Cleveland Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Library of Congress. He has presented more than 70 public lectures on the subjects of his work, African American art, and contemporary printmaking. Articles and reviews of his work have appeared in more than forty different publications. He has lectured and presented demonstrations throughout the United States and Mexico, the West Indies, and Costa Rica, and has been an artist-in-residence at museums, collages and universities.

In Holton’s own words, “My work as an artist is based on both public and a private narrative. The public narrative has led to a commentary on issues that impact society in general including race, poverty, political concerns, isolation and class. It has also led me to explore intrapersonal relationships based on traditional roles and archetypes. I try to capture people and sometimes things in their most private or solitary moments, even when these moments are in public view. My private narrative pushes me further and presents my personal negotiation of these same issues and frequently confronts ramifications that are more intimate in their nature. My narratives can be both objective and subjective. My work overtly considers the forces that have developed my point of view and as a result there are frequently messages on multiple levels for the discerning viewer.”