Brenda Zlamany

Brenda Zlamany is a Brooklyn-based painter known for her portraits of artists and overlooked figures across history and cultures. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at institutions worldwide, including the National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum in Gdańsk, the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, the Frankfurter Kunstverein, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei. Zlamany's portraits have garnered reviews in publications like the New York Times, the New Yorker, Artforum, and ARTnews, and her pieces are held in numerous collections including the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Yale University, and The Rockefeller University. A recipient of grants like the Fulbright Fellowship, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, and the New York Foundation for the Arts Artists’ Fellowship. Zlamany continues her artistic mission by presenting a portrait of celebrated Ukrainian folk artist Maria Prymachenko.

Zlamany felt a deep connection with Prymachenko while painting her, as with many of the historical women she has portrayed and was compelled to highlight her story through this portrait. Prymachenko (1908-1997) was a self-taught Ukrainian artist whose knowledge of culture and tradition informed her vividly colored paintings and embroideries. Picasso once remarked, "I bow down before the artistic miracle of this brilliant Ukrainian," after visiting an exhibition of her work in Paris. Tragically, some of her works were destroyed in the shelling of a museum in Kyiv during Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Zlamany's portrait not only honors Prymachenko's artistic legacy but also serves as a poignant reminder of the cultural losses suffered in times of conflict. The artist hopes that her painting will serve as a reminder of the ongoing tragic destruction of cultural heritage in Ukraine.

Submitted by James Baird