
Bo Bartlett Studio, 2017, Wheaton Island, ME
BO BARTLETT (b. 1955, Columbus, GA) received his Certificate of Fine Arts in 1981 from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and received a certificate in filmmaking from New York University in 1986. In January 2018, Columbus State University unveiled the Bo Bartlett Center, which features a permanent collection of Bartlett’s work.
He has had numerous solo exhibitions nationally and internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include Forty Years of Drawing, The Florence Academy of Art, Jersey City, NJ;Paintings and Works on Paper, Weber Fine Art, Greenwich, CT; Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; Retrospective, The Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus, GA; “Paintings from the Outpost, Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME; “Bo Bartlett: American Artist,” The Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, FL; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA; The University of Mississippi Museum, Oxford, MS; “Love and Other Sacraments,” Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME; “Paintings of Home,” Ilges Gallery, Columbus State University, Columbus, GA; “A Survey of Paintings,” W.C. Bradley Co. Museum, Columbus, GA; “Paintings of Home,” P.P.O.W. Gallery, New York, NY; and Ogden Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA.
Recent group exhibitions include "Really." (curated by Inka Essenhigh & Ryan McGinness), Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “A Telling Instinct: John James Audubon and Contemporary Art,” Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC (upcoming); “Bo Bartlett and Betsy Eby,” Ithan Substation No. 1, Villanova, PA; “Trust the Process,” Gallery 222, Malvern, PA,“The Serious and the Smirk,” Sommerville Manning Gallery, Philadelphia, PA,“Objects of Desire,” Bernaducci Gallery, New York, NY; “Artists by Artists,” Forum Gallery, New York, NY; “Belief in Giants,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “Paintguide,” Booth Gallery, New York, NY; “Uncompromising Visions,” Cerulean Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; “PoetsArtists,” Arcadia Contemporary, Culver City, CA; “New Baroque,” Booth Gallery, New York, NY;“Big Art. Small Canvas,” RJD Gallery, New York, NY “Truth & Vision: 21st Century Realism,” Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; “Behind the Easel,” Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE; “Rockwell and Realism in an Abstract World,” Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA; “Brine,” SOMA New Art Gallery, Cape May, NJ, curated by Victor Grasso; “The Things We Carry: Contemporary Art in the South,” Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; “American Masters,” Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE; “The Philadelphia Story,” Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC; “The Outwin Boochever 2013 Portrait Competition Exhibition,” Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; “Best of the Northwest: Selected Paintings from the Permanent Collection,” Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA; “Perception of Self,” Forum Gallery, New York, NY; “Real: Realism in Diverse Media,” Imago Galleries, Palm Desert, CA
His work may be found in the permanent collections of the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, PA; the Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus State University, Columbus, GA; Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, PA; Denver Museum of Art, Denver, CO; Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA; Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN; La Salle University Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; McCornick Place Metropolis Pier and Exposition Authority, South Hall, Chicago, IL; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Philadelphia Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA; and United States Mint, Philadelphia, PA.
Bartlett is the recipient of the Atelier Focus Fellowship; Benjamin Lanard Memorial Award; Cecelia Beaux Memorial Portrait Prize, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Charles Toppan Prize, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Eleanor S. Gray Still Life Prize; Gibbes Society 1858 Southern Contemporary Art Prize; Museum Merit Award, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, GA; Packard Prize, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; the PEW Fellowship in the Arts; the Philadelphia Museum of Art Award; Thouron Prize; and the William Emlen Cresson Traveling Scholarship, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
Bo Bartlett lives and works in Columbus, GA and lives seasonally in Maine.