Few painters can count among their achievements a legendary Time magazine cover, a U.S. postage stamp portrait of a famed civil-rights activist, two Olympic posters and an NAACP Image Award for a co-authored book, but Charly Palmer is not your average artist.
Winner of the University of West Georgia’s 2024 Blackwell Prize in Painting, a $10,000 award made possible by the Fred R. and Nell W. Blackwell Testamentary Trust of Newnan, Palmer has become a towering figure in the world of American art and arts activism. Palmer’s paintings will be exhibited at The Vault Gallery in Newnan from Tuesday, Oct. 1 through Friday, Oct. 25.
Palmer is known for saying, “Art should change the temperature in a room.” For more than 30 years, his work has done just that—exploring the wonders and struggles of African ancestry and Blackness in America; telling rhythmic, visual stories that alter what viewers think and feel; and documenting the intricacies of Black experience with depth, insight and a rich array of patterns, symbols and textures. At every turn, his work seeks to answer the questions, “What came before?” and “What truth must be told?”
Born in Fayette, Alabama, and raised in Milwaukee, Palmer studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the American Academy of Art. He served for several years as a professor of art at Spelman College in Atlanta, where he currently lives.
In 2020, Palmer provided the cover art for John Legend’s Grammy-winning album “Bigger Love.” That same year, at the height of the Black Lives Matter Movement, his now famous painting “In Her Eyes” appeared on the July 6 “America Must Change” double issue of Time. The illustrator of numerous children’s books — including Kathryn Erskine’s “Mama Africa!: How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope with Her Song,” which garnered the 2018 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Illustrator Award — Palmer is also a writer, co-authoring “The New Brownies Book: A Love Letter to Black Families,” which won the 2024 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work of Nonfiction.
Palmer’s paintings hang in several private collections and museums, including the African American Museum of Southern New Jersey, Just Lookin’ Gallery in Hagerstown, Maryland, and Spence Gallery in Toronto.
Celebrating high artistic achievement in two fields, the Blackwell Prize is awarded each spring and fall in writing and observational painting, respectively. In addition to the monetary award, prizewinners receive time and support to advance their craft, staying for two to four weeks at Gray Cottage, a renovated bungalow managed by the Newnan Artist-in-Residence Program. Blackwell awardees also engage with the West Georgia community during their residency, giving free public readings and lectures, visiting schools and offering workshops for students, and stressing the important roles of art and literature in communal life.
Palmer will deliver a talk about his work on Tuesday, Oct. 8, at 6 p.m. in Campus Center Ballroom 108 at UWG’s main campus in Carrollton. He will also give a gallery talk during a special reception at The Vault on Wednesday, Oct. 16, from 5 to 8 p.m.
Both events are hosted by the UWG Culture Lab and are free to the public. Regular Vault Gallery hours during the exhibition are Tuesday-Friday, 2-6 p.m.
