Author Archives: Experiment Station

In the Studio with Brittany Moná

Posted on by

Brittany Moná’s Resistance in Relaxation and Joy is currently on view in the Digital Window Exhibition space at Phillips@THEARC as part of the Digital Intersections series. The Phillips Collection Fellow Arianna Adade met with the artist to talk about her practice.

Brittany Moná in her studio

In the corner of Brittany Moná’s bedroom rests an altar where she asks for guidance from her ancestors and allows her inspiration to flow intuitively; it is in that same corner where her art truly comes to life. Focusing on abstraction and themes of the Black diaspora as a multidisciplinary artist, Moná’s works primarily consist of a wood medium, but she also integrates photography, canvas paintings, and digital artwork.

Brittany Moná, Daughters of the Diaspora 2, 2023. 9 1/2 x 12 1/2 in., Mixed media on plywood, Courtesy of the artist

As a DMV native, Brittany Moná (Moh-Nay) has had exposure to the intersections of art and culture from a very young age. Growing up, her family kept her deeply involved in the arts. Attending a visual arts high school, Moná had a strong passion for acting and pursued it throughout her adolescence. As an aspiring actress, she was also an early childhood educator, spending much of her time teaching young children through art and museum practices. From 2018 to 2022, Moná briefly dabbled in portrait photography which she still enjoys. However, in the midst of the pandemic, when the world stood still and many felt their careers and passions shift, Moná’s interest in painting blossomed. She channeled her feelings into experimental art and soon enough, her students became a source of inspiration.

Brittany Moná, My Brother’s Keeper, 2023, Acrylic paint, acrylic marker, oil pen on layered wood, 13 x 16 in., Courtesy of the artist

The fundamental elements of her personhood and individuality play a vital role in the emotions Brittany Moná constructs in her works. My Brother’s Keeper draws inspiration from her brother and other young Black men in her community. It mirrors the interconnections among Black men, highlighting the collective responsibility within the community to uplift one another through empowerment and guidance. By blending the essence of grandmotherly figures within the Black community—who embody wisdom, discipline, love, and connection to ancestral roots—she pays homage to Black artists who have paved the way for today’s generation to occupy space in conventional art realms.

Brittany Moná, My Ancestors Vessel, 2023, 4 feet x 32 in., Mixed media on wood, Courtesy of the artist

But, most importantly, her artwork embodies the childlike wonder and innocence children hold, when they are unrestricted in their creative state and free from the influence of the outside world. With her teaching background intertwined with art, Moná believes that children are receptive to learning and have the capacity to understand a multitude of subjects and complexities when given the space and patience to learn. As a Black educator, she wanted her students to find proper representations in art, which is something the museum world still struggles with. She makes this her mission, often thinking of her students throughout the process: “Kids can be the biggest influence.”

Brittany Moná, Guidance, 2023, Digital collage, 24 x 36 in., Courtesy of the artist

The Phillips Collects: Mose Tolliver and Joe Light

Posted on by

The Phillips Collection recently acquired paintings by Mose Tolliver and Joe Light. These two gifts from Gail B. Greenblatt were part of the collection of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the work of Black artists from the American South and supporting their communities by fostering economic empowerment and racial and social justice.

Mose Tolliver (b. 1925, Pike Road, AL; d. 2006, Montgomery, AL),  Snake, no date, Acrylic on plywood, 24 x 23 1/2 in., The Phillips Collection, Gift from Gail B. Greenblatt

Mose Tolliver is one of the earliest Black folk artists to receive popular acclaim, following his first solo show in 1980 at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. The son of tenant farmers, Tolliver first explored his creative talents as a landscape gardener. In the 1960s, when an accident left him unable to walk, Tolliver began to paint voraciously. His brightly colored works include images of animals, women, plants, and religious subjects. Snake is built up from wet-on-wet layers of lively rhythmic brushstrokes.

Joe Light ( b. 1934, Dyersburg, TN; d. 2005, Memphis, TN), Bird and Dog, no date, Acrylic on plywood, 23 x 11 1/4 in., The Phillips Collection, Gift from Gail B. Greenblatt

Joe Louis Light took up art after his discharge from the US Army in the 1950s and later release from prison for armed robbery. Finding salvation in religion, Light turned his attention to making signs, driftwood sculptures, and paintings that evoke his deeply personal spiritual and political views. In Bird and Dog, Light composed the scene in three horizontal bands that symbolically suggest a type of ascension from the material to the spiritual world.

“These two paintings will be the first by Joe Light and Mose Tolliver to enter the collection, and further the Phillips’s commitment to broadening the art historical canon. They provide compelling juxtapositions with a range of historical and contemporary artists in the collection, including Morris Graves, Grandma Moses, Horace Pippin, and Albert Pinkham Ryder, as well as the five Gee’s Bend quilts acquired in 2019.” Elsa Smithgall, Chief Curator

Infusing the Phillips with Contemporary Art

Posted on by

The Phillips Collection’s Director of Contemporary Art Initiatives and Academic Affairs Dr. Vesela Sretenovic is departing the museum after nearly 15 years of distinguished service and curatorial accomplishments to pursue independent curating, writing, and teaching. Sretenović began her tenure at the Phillips in January 2009 as Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, the first curatorial position of its kind at the museum. During her tenure, she bolstered the museum’s engagement with contemporary art through innovative and vibrant exhibitions, programs, acquisitions, partnerships, and more. Notably, Sretenović created Intersections, a series of contemporary art projects in which artists—national, international, emerging, and established—were invited to engage with the museum’s permanent collection and historic architecture and create new work(s).

Here we look back at some of the dynamic and bold exhibitions and initiatives that Vesela organized for the Phillips.

Vesela Sretenović and Zilia Sánchez in San Juan preparing for Sánchez’s retrospective Soy Isla (2018)

Ellsworth Kelly: Panel Paintings 2004-2009 (2013), curated by Vesela Sretenović. Photo: Lee Stalsworth

The unveiling of Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi’s Something discernible in the hollow space of its absence (2022), acquired through the Contemporaries Acquisition Fund, led by Vesela Sretenović.

Los Carpinteros with part of their Intersections installation Cuba Va! (2019). Photo: Carl Nard

Vesela Sretenovic with Intersections artists at the opening of Intersections@5 (2015), celebrating 5 years of Intersections

Vesela Sretenović with Intersections artists at the opening of Intersections@5 (2015), celebrating 5 years of Intersections.

Vesela Sretenović with Bettina Pousttchi’s Intersections installation Double Monuments (2016). Photo: Rhiannon Newman

Vesela Sretenović with Alyson Shotz’s Intersections installation Ecliptic (2011). Photos: Sue Ahn

Bernardi Roig’s The Man of the Light (2005) from his Intersections installation NO/Escape (2014)

Daniel Canogar’s Digital Intersections project Amalgama Phillips (2021) in the Goh Annex Stairwell


Performance at the conclusion of Sanford Biggers’s Intersections installation Mosaic (2021)

Opening for Linling Lu’s Intersections installation Soundwaves (2023), with a conversation between the artist and Vesela Sretenović. Photo: AK Blythe

Through exhibitions, lectures, panels, performances, partnerships, tours, publications, and so much more, Vesela certainly infused the Phillips with contemporary art and spirit. We will miss you, Vesela!