To celebrate Elizabeth Catlett s birthday on April 15, and following a highly praised three-part museum retrospective, 'A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies,' that opened at the Brooklyn Museum in March 2025, traveled to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and culminated at The Art Institute of Chicago in January 2026, attracting widespread public interest and excellent reviews, an exhibition titled 'Elizabeth Catlett: Sculpture' will be held at June Kelly Gallery, 166 Mercer Street, from Friday, April 3rd, to Tuesday, May 12th, 2026.

Celebrated as one of the most influential artists of the last fifty years, a sculptor, printmaker, educator, dedicated feminist, and social activist, Catlett had a lifelong commitment to a visual language rooted in the strength, dignity, and beauty of the human form, especially the feminine figure.  After winning first prize in sculpture for her Negro Mother and Child at the 1940 American Negro Exposition in Chicago, she continued to expand her body of work, characterized by its powerful simplicity and emotional depth.  Her sculptures, marked by graceful, classical shapes and smooth surfaces, express both grandeur and tenderness, honoring everyday life with timeless meaning.

Like many women artists, Catlett grappled with the inconsistency of a country founded on liberty and justice, while she, as a woman, and more specifically, as a Black woman, faced daily conflicts with that principle.  She was denied admission to Carnegie Mellon University's graduate program but was accepted at the University of Iowa's graduate school, though she was not allowed to live in the dormitory.  Later, she received Honorary Doctorates from both institutions, and in 2017, the 12-story-tall Elizabeth Catlett Residence Hall, home to 1,049 students, opened on the campus of the University of Iowa.

Kelly described Catlett as influential in transforming black feminist artwork by creating pieces that addressed the critical social and political identities of feminism.  Her work encouraged a new envisioning of the image of an African American woman.  A core element of Catlett s sculpture was the goal of overcoming the oppressive stigma faced by black women. Printmaking allowed her to reach broad audiences with her focused and political messages.

Regardless of medium, material, or subject portrayal, Catlett s forms celebrate the beauty of feminism and pay tribute to the subject from the gentle curve of the woman s neck with an infant on her shoulder, Mother and Child, 2006, conveying maternal compassion, to the expressive guts and determination reflected in the posture of Stepping Out, 2000, a woman with her head held high and a confident stride, embodying her femininity and sensuality.

Catlett was born in 1915 in Washington, DC, and died in Cuernavaca, Mexico, in 2012. She earned a BA from Howard University and an MFA in sculpture from the University of Iowa, and received 12 honorary doctorates, including from Pratt Institute in 1999 and Carnegie Mellon University in 2008.

At the University of Iowa, where she was a postgraduate student, she studied with Grant Wood, the head of the Art Department.  She was influenced by his idea of a common thread of humanity that connects all people in her sculpture.

Catlett studied ceramics at the Art Institute of Chicago; many of her most important early pieces are in terra cotta. Later, she moved to New York, where she worked with French sculptor Ossip Zadkine, an influential teacher, and learned printmaking at the Art Students League.  Catlett relocated to Mexico in the late 1940s, continuing her studies in ceramics with Francisco Z iga and woodcarving with Jos L. Ruiz at the Escuela de Pintura y Escultura.  Her work has been widely exhibited in both solo and group shows across the United States, Mexico, and Europe.  Her sculptures are part of major national and international museum collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and The Studio Museum in Harlem in New York City; the National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C.; the High Museum of Art in Atlanta; the New Orleans Museum of Art; the N rodn Muzeum in Prague, Czech Republic; and the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City.

Elizabeth Catlett s work is widely recognized as a powerful expression of the enduring strength, grace, and resilience of the human spirit. June Kelly