Conceived as mnemonics of the history, past and present, of African-American experience, Willie Birch's papier-mache and mixed media sculptures make use of Southern folk and African spiritual traditions. These powerful creations dedicate honor and heroic status to important figures in the artist's life. Birch's recent work captures the dignity and the intimacy of friends and passers-by in his hometown of New Orleans. His large-scale paintings on paper not only reveal a sensitivity for the subject but dazzle with his knowledge of the formal qualities of painting.

Education 1973 M.F.A., Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD 1969 B.A., Southern University, New Orleans, LA 1960-61 Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA Awards and Commissions since 1990 2006 Grant recipient, Joan Mitchell Foundation 2005 Artist in Residence, CUE Art Foundation, New York 2002 Artist in Residence, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation Mayor's Arts Award, New Orleans, LA 2001 Adderley Lecturer, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA 2000 Artist in Residence, Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, NM 1997 Spoffard Juvenile Detention Center, Brooklyn, NY 1996 Louisiana Review of the Arts New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority, Arts for Transit, 135th Street & Lenox Avenue (Mural) Philadelphia International Airport (Mural) 1995 Municipal Collaborative Project for Downtown Winston-Salem 1993 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship 1992 Lila Wallace, Reader's Digest International Artists Fellowship Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation Visual Arts Residency Grant 1989-90 New York State Council on the Arts National Endowment for the Arts, Visual Artist Fellowship Selected Solo Exhibitions since 1995 2006, 2002, 2000 New York, NY; Luise Ross Gallery 2002 North Adams, MA; Kidspace at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Somebody's Child Lafayette, LA; University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Art Museum, Willie Birch: Transforming Identities Mahwah, NJ; Ramapo College, Berrie Center Art Galleries, Willie Birch 2001 Eatonville, FL; Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts, Willie Birch: 1994-1997 Houston, TX; Diverse Works Art Space 2001, 1999, 1997, 1996 New Orleans, LA; Arthur Roger Gallery 1998-9 Dallas, TX; The McKinney Avenue Contemporary Museum, Willie Birch: Transforming Identities(travelling exhibit) New Orleans, LA; Contemporary Arts Center, The Colors of Rhythm Wilmington, DE; Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Spirit House and Recent Work 1997 Tampa, FL; Museum of African American Art, Dialogues and Heroes 1996 Lancaster, PA; Franklin and Marshall College Chicago, IL; Satori Fine Art, Not Just a Pretty Picture: Urban American Portraits 1995-96 Winston-Salem, NC; Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, From Bertrandville to Brooklyn (Travelled to Spoleto Festival, U.S.A., Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC) 1995 Philadelphia, PA; Gallery Joe, An Urban Perspective Selected Group Exhibitions since 1995 2008 Cotuit, MA, The Cahoon Museum of American Art; Trend Meets Tradition: Ethnic Heritage in Contemporary Art New York, NY, The National Academy Museum; The 183rd Annual: An Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art 2007 New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery; Rare Birds 2006 New York, NY, New York Historical Society; Legacies: Contemporary Artists Reflect on Slavery New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery; Fun! New York, NY, Gigantic Art Space; Artificial Afrika 2005 New York, NY, Luise Ross Gallery; New Location 2004 Orlando, FL, American Heritage Gallery, Epcot Center, Walt Disney World; Echoes of Africa 2003-4 Richmond, VA; Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Thinking with Blood: Conflict and Culture in the American South (Travelling exhibition) 2003 Boone, NC; Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, Appalachian State University, Go Figure! Manifestations of the Human Form in Contemporary Art 2002-4 Washington, DC; Smithsonian American Art Museum, In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Travelling exhibition) 2001 Richmond, VA; Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, Collected Sound: The Music of Jazz in Art Ithaca, NY; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Uncommon Threads: Contemporary Artists and Clothing 2000 New York, NY; Henry Street Settlement, Abrons Arts Center, Silver Select 1999 Washington D.C.; Meridian International Center, Outward Bound:American Art at the Brink of the Twenty-First Century (Travelling to Vietnam, China, Singapore and Indonesia) New York, NY; Studio Museum in Harlem, Passages: Contemporary Art in Transiton Birmingham, AL; University of Alabama at Birmingham, Upsouth (travelling exhibition) Baton Rouge, LA; Baton Rouge Gallery 1998 New Orleans, LA; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans Triennial New Orleans, LA; The Contemporary Arts Center, The Colors of Rhythm 1996-98 Santa Fe, NM; Gerald Peters Gallery, Rediscovering the Landscape of the Americas (Travelling to Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX; Western Gallery, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA; Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC {partial list}) 1996-97 Charlotte, NC; Spirit Square Center for Arts and Education, Tragic Wake: The Legacy of Slavery and The African Diaspora in Contemporary American Art 1996 New York, NY; Luise Ross Gallery, Extensions: Large Scale Drawings New York, NY; American Academy of Arts and Letters, 48th Annual Purchase Exhibition 1995 New York, NY; Pratt Manhattan Gallery and Pratt Institute, Jazz Y Son New York, NY; Bill Bace Gallery, Semaphore: Placing the Mark Recent Literature Valdez, Sarah. Review: Willie Birch at Luise Ross. Art in America, May, 2001, p. 181. Maksymowicz, Virginia. "High, Low, and In-Between." Sculpture, March, 2001, p. 24-9. Brenson, Michael. Review. New York, 13 November, 2000, p.80. Selected Public Collections Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY New Orleans Museum of Art, LA Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, TN Atlanta Life Insurance Company, GA Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana, Baton Rouge Brooklyn Union Gas, NY Capitol Records, Hollywood, CA Smith-Mason Gallery and Museum, Washington, DC Tulane University Law School, New Orleans, LA Harlem Hospital, New York, NY Health and Hospital Corporation, New York, NY Jesuit Educational Association, Baltimore, MD Miami-Dade Public Library, FL Mobil Corporation, Fairfax, VA Prudential Insurance Company, Newark, NJ Southern University in New Orleans, LA Temple University, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA The Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, New Brunswick, NJ Wilfredo Lam Center, Havana, Cuba