BO BARTLETT

Miles McEnery Gallery is pleased to present a new collection of works by Bo Bartlett, on view 2 April through 9 May 2026 at 515 West 22nd Street. This marks the artist’s sixth solo exhibition with the gallery and continues his investigation of the American experience through figurative realism. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication featuring an essay by Craig Drennen.

The exhibition gathers new paintings and works on paper that depict sun‑soaked beach scenes, outdoor tableaux, and charged moments of stillness—spaces where light, atmosphere, and human presence are palpable. Bartlett’s figures engage the viewer with compelling intensity: some face us directly, demanding attention, while others turn away, inviting reflection.

As Drennen writes, “Bartlett’s figures are eternally positioned and waiting for us, presenting themselves as directed by the artist. They seem to acknowledge the spectators as part of a compositional method used since Rembrandt’s time to make viewers feel included within a scene.” He continues, “In Bartlett’s more recent paintings, the family and friends he portrays seem to recognize their role as performers. They stand poised within the paintings, ready to be photographed.”

In these works, Bartlett’s signature sense of staging and narrative restraint creates scenes that feel at once deeply familiar and subtly enigmatic. His compositions, rendered with a cinematic clarity and even, uninsistent light, forgo drama in favor of quiet observation.

Drawing from personal histories and recurring locations—from the coastal landscapes of Maine, where Bartlett has spent his summers for over two decades, to his Southern roots, where he still lives, surrounded by the people and places that have long shaped his life and career—Bartlett constructs images that balance emotional resonance and narrative tension. As Drennen writes, “It is easy to imagine that, in the late phase of a long career, a deep well of emotion might arise in an artist for whom the present cannot be seen without the overlay of the past. One can imagine how valuable it might feel for Bartlett to ask his loved ones to step into his paintings and hold their positions for one last time.”

Bo Bartlett (b. 1955 in Columbus, GA) received his Certificate of Fine Arts in 1981 from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and a Certificate of Filmmaking from New York University in 1986. In 2023, Bartlett received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Art from the New York Academy of Art and The Honorary Certificate from the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts.

Bartlett has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions at The Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus, GA; Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI; The Florence Academy of Art, Jersey City, NJ; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Lyme Academy of Fine Arts, Old Lyme, CT; Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; MOCA Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL; Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL; and Weber Fine Art, Greenwich, CT, among others.

His work has been included in group exhibitions at numerous institutions including the Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX; Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA; National Arts Club, New York, NY; National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH, Linz, Austria; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; and the Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC.

Bartlett’s work may be found in the collections of the Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, GA; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Denver Museum of Art, Denver, CO; The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC; La Salle University Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, FL; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA; Vero Beach Museum of Art, Vero Beach, FL, and elsewhere. Bartlett is the recipient of rewards and accolades including the South Arts Fellowship, South Arts, Atlanta, GA; Atelier Focus Fellowship, Chattahoochee Hills, GA; 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Pew Fellowship in the Arts, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Philadelphia, PA; Museum Merit Award, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, GA; Museum Merit Award, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; and the Benjamin Lanard Memorial Award, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, among others.

The artist lives and works in Columbus, GA and Wheaton Island, ME.

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Selected Works

Press Release