2012 Camille Billops

Camille Billops Prints & Posters

April 6 May 31, 2012

list of works included The KKK Boutique 23.5 x 19 inches Offset Lithograph 1994 On loan from Brandywine Workshop Untitled The KKK Boutique 11 x 17 inches Offset Lithograph 1993 On loan from Denise M. Brown Untitled Mammy’s Little Coal Black Rose, Minstrel Series 30x22 inches Offset Lithograph 1992 On loan from Brandywine Workshop Smoke and Blue Ed #2 9 x 7 inches Offset Lithograph and pencil 1988 On loan from Denise M. Brown Untitled Old Black Joe, Minstrel Series Poster 1991 On loan from Denise M. Brown Older Women and Love Movie Poster 1985 On loan from Camille Billops Finding Christa Movie Poster 1992 On loan from Denise M. Brown Ceramic Sculpture Poster 1973 On loan from Camille Billops The KKK Boutique: Ain’t Just Rednecks Movie Still 1994 Photo by Jon Oh On loan from Denise M. Brown

About the exhibit Camille Billops’ career spans 50+ years and has crossed disciplines including ceramics, printmaking, sculpture, book illustration, and filmmaking. She has exhibited worldwide in both group and solo shows. Her sculptures and prints are included in many permanent collections. In 1978 she assisted long time friend and colleague, Robert Blackburn in establishing the first printmaking workshop in Asilah, Morocco.

Since the late 1980s, Camille has co-produced and directed six award-winning documentaries—Suzanne, Suzanne, which was chosen by the Museum of Modern Art for its prestigious New Directors Series in 1983; Finding Christa, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992; and her most recent film, A String of Pearls, which was chosen as the opening night film for the Planet Africa series at the Toronto Film Festival in 2002.

Camille has exhibited at the Studio Museum of Harlem, as well as in Hamburg, Germany; Cairo, Egypt; Los Angeles, and New York. She wrote and published The Harlem Book of the Dead, featuring the poetry of Owen Dodson and the photography of James Van Der Zee. She has received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Rockefeller Fellowship in Filmmaking, and the Skowhegan Award for contribution in the arts.

Most recently, she exhibited in the photo retrospective for the Percent for Art Exhibition in New York, at the Parsons School of Design, and was elected to the Advisory Board of WAAND—The National Directory of Women Artists Archives— at Rutgers University at New Brunswick.

In 1975 Camille and her husband, theater historian James V. Hatch, founded the Hatch-Billops Collection. Currently housed at Atlanta’s Emory University, the collection of books, manuscripts, photographs, oral histories, and other valuable materials, focuses on African American arts and letters of the 20th century.

This exhibit was organized in collaboration with Scribe Video Center (scribe. org) and was made possible, in part, through the generosity of Camille Billops, Denise M. Brown, and with additional support from the Brandywine Workshop (brandywineworkshop.com).

Camille’s prints and posters will be on view at Leeway during office hours, Monday through Friday from 9:30am to 5:30pm, and by appointment only. To schedule a visit call (215) 545-4078.

Cover Image: Untitled, Mammy’s Little Coal Black Rose, Minstrel Series, 1992.

About Leeway Support for individual artists is at the core of Leeway’s mission. The Foundation serves as an important resource for women and transgender artists who often struggle to find funding for their work and hopes to grow the way its resources support social change through supporting art and culture.

Our grant programs, the Art and Change Grant and the Leeway Transformation Award, are open to women and transgender artists living in the Philadelphia region working in any medium of art, including traditional and non-traditional as well as multimedia and experimental forms. Creating change must be integral to the ideas, beliefs, and goals that are woven throughout the work and the process of creating and sharing the work.

For more information please visit leeway.org or call 215.545.4078.

Board of Directors Amadee L. Braxton, President Carolyn Chernoff Gretjen Clausing, Treasurer Matty Hart Tina Morton Patience Rage Virginia P. Sikes, Esq. Staff Denise M. Brown, Executive Director Hope Steinman-Iacullo, Program Assistant Irit Reinhimer, Communications Assistant Maori Karmael Holmes, Associate Director Sham-e-Ali Nayeem, Program Director Simone Banks, Intern Exhibit Design & Installation Sean Stoops

CONTACT information Leeway Foundation The Philadelphia Building 1315 Walnut Street, Suite 832 Philadelphia, PA 19107 P 215.545.4078 | F 215.545.4021 info@leeway.org Follow us @leewayfound facebook.com/leewayfoundation