On View: ‘Reality, Times Two: Joyce J. Scott & Elizabeth Talford Scott’ at Goya Contemporary in Baltimore
By Victoria L. Valentine
CELEBRATING THE CREATIVE CONNECTIONS between a mother and daughter, “REALITY, Times Two” presents works by quilt artist Elizabeth Talford Scott (1916-2011) and bead artist Joyce J. Scott. The Baltimore artists lived together for more than 60 years until Elizabeth died in 2011.
Born on a South Carolina plantation where her family sharecropped, Elizabeth inserted generational narratives into her quilts through imagery, symbols, and material, such as rocks, buttons, and family fabrics. Her textile works call to mind story quilts; one, composed of neckties, resembles an abstract painting.
As a young child, Joyce learned craftwork from her mother and has advanced that knowledge into new realms. She earned a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, an MFA from the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, studied glass-blowing in Murano, Italy, and was awarded a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2016. Working with beads and glass, she produces beautiful, complicated works that address the ugly realities of the world, issues like war, racism, police brutality, and misogyny.
Eighteen works by Joyce (sculpture, wall hangings, and monoprints dating from 1976 to 2019) are on view, along with three circa 1990s quilts by Elizabeth, and a quilt the artists made together in 1983. The exhibition coincides with “Hitching Their Dreams to Untamed Stars: Joyce J. Scott & Elizabeth Talford Scott,” a small show of nine works at the Baltimore Museum of Art through Dec. 1.
REALITY, Times two: Joyce J. Scott & Elizabeth Talford Scott is on view at Goya Contemporary in Baltimore, May 10-July 31, 2019