OVERVIEW | CV | PRESS | GALLERY EXHIBITIONS
Born Jacksonville, FL
Lives and works in Boston, MA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 First Light: Our Stories, Halsey McKay Gallery, East Hampton, NY
The Scene/Seen, SPOKE Gallery, Boston, MA
2020 – 2021 Freedom Rising: I AM the Story, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
2021 Found Linage: Celebrating African American Roots and Branches, Black Heritage Trail Center, Portsmouth,, NH
2015 In Sight: Eternally Here African American Landscapes of Freedom, Bunker Hill Community College, Boston, MA
2012 – 2013 Quilted Chronicles: Burning Memories, Hibernian Hall, Roxbury, MA
1995 – 1996 Art in Motion: Reflections on Brazil, Museum of the National Center for Afro-American Artists
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women, Smithsonian Museum of American Art Renwick Gallery, Washington D.C.
2022 Black Pioneers: Legacy In the American West, The James Museum, St. Petersburg, FL
2021 We Who Believe in Freedom, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinatti, OH
Standing Up/ Violence Transformed, Cambridge College, Boston, MA
Divine Legacies in Black Jewelry, Metal Museum, Memphis, TN
2020 We Who Believe in Freedom, Textile Museum, Minneapolis, MN
2019 New Urban Monuments: Stand Up Inside Yourself, Galetea Fine Art, Boston, MA
2018 Nine Moments for Now: for Freedoms /50 States Initiative, The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, Harvard University, Boston, MA
2017 #SayHerName, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA
2016 Violence Transformed, City for Boston, Boston, MA
Black History 365, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA
The Future of the Past: Black Lives Matter, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA
2015 Seventeen Syllables: The Desire Line, Artward Bound Teens, Art Grove Franklin Park / MassArt, Boston, MA
Violence Transformed: Focus on Freedom, Roxbury Community College, Roxbury, MA
The Theresa Show: Fiber Arts, Harriet Tubman Gallery, Boston, MA
2013 Here: Immigration, Medicine Wheel Spoke Gallery, Boston, MA
And Still We Rise: Race, Culture, and Visual Conversations, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinatti, OH 2011 Urban Celebrations, Scollay Square Gallery, Boston City Hall, Boston, MA
2010 Textural Rhythms: Quilting the Jazz Tradition, Museum of Texas Tech University , Lubbock, Texas
The Life and Times of Robert Smalls, Museum of African American History, Boston, MA
The Journey of Hope: Quilts Inspired by President Barack Obama, National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center, Wilberforce, OH
2009 Textural Rhythms: Quilting the Jazz Tradition, American Folk Art Museum, New York, New York
Quilts for Obama: Celebrating the Inauguration of our 44th President, Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
2008 Quilts for Obama: Inaugural Exhibit, Historical Society of Washington, DC
Textural Rhythms: Quilting the Jazz Tradition, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI
Textural Rhythms: Quilting the Jazz Tradition, American Folk Art Museum, New York, New York
Music, Art, and Cultural Expression, African-American Master Artists-in-Residence Program (AAMARP), Northeastern University Boston, MA
2005 High Fiber:” MLK Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, Smithsonian Institution, Renwick Gallery, Washington DC
2002 – 2004 In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Martin Luther King, Smithsonian Institution (Traveling Exhibit)
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
The White House, Washington, D.C.
American Museum of Design, New York, NY
AWARDS, COMMISSIONS & RESIDENCIES
2021 Brother Thomas Fellowship, Boston Foundation for the Arts
2020 – 2021 Medicine Wheel Productions Touched Alive with Hope Tales on the Stoop
2018 – 2020 Stable Ground 1.0 & 2.0, Northeastern University
2018 – 2019 Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts – New Urban Monuments 2
2018 – 2010 Stable Ground 1.0 & 2.0, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 2018 – 2019 Now + There, Nick Cave’s Augment Project
2017 – 2018 NEFA Creative City Residency New Urban Monuments
2016 – 2017 BOSTON AIR, City of Boston, MA 2013 National Treasury Unions, Black History Month, Smithsonian Institution
2012 Madison Park Development Corporation Community Catalyst Artist Award
2011 Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., Education Award
2007 Patricia Raynor Award for Literacy
2007 – 2008 White House Ornament Project
2006 – 2015 Southend Technologies and MIT FABLab
Northeastern University, African American Studies Program
2003 New England Foundation for the Arts, Visible Republic Public Art
2000 – 2002 ParkArts; City of Boston Public Art Kinetic Sculpture Award
2000 – 2002 New England Aquarium
2000 Visible Republic: Holography, New England Foundation for the Arts
1999 – 2000 Taiwan/Boston, Boston/Tainan Project
1999 – present African American Master Artist in Residence
1995 – present National Center of Afro-American Artists
1994-1995 Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest International Artist-in-Residence Fellowship, Sao Paulo, Brazil
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2022 McQuaid, Cate, At SPOKE Gallery L’Merchie Frazier’s Quilts Speak Volumes, The Boston Globe, February 10, 2022.
2021 Walsh, Brienne, In a Series of Quilts L’Merchie Frazier Saves Us From Amnesia Regarding Black History, Forbes, February 24, 2021.
Vogel, Maria, Artist L’Merchie Frazier’s Quilt Expresses the Bond of a Mother and Child in Thread—Here Are 3 Facts You May Not Know About It, Artnet News, March 28, 2021.
Gelfand, Janelle, Freedom Center Exhibit Tackles Racism, Police Brutality, Civil Rights via Quilts to Encourage Healing, Cincinatti Business Courier, July 2, 2021.
Boston Sheds More Light on Its Relationship to Slavery, The Boston Globe, September8, 2021.
2020 Brown, Patricia Leigh, Gone but Never Forgotten in a Quilt, The New York Times, December 12, 2020.
Martin, Philp, In The Age of Black Lives Matter, New England Faces Its Own Role In Slavery, GBH: Boston NPR, December 2, 2020.
Taliesin, Julia, Here’s the Story Behind the New Middle Passage Marker at Long Wharf, Boston.com, September 7, 2021
Mason, Amelia, Black Artist Collective Locked Out Of Studios At Northeastern University, WBUR, June 29, 2020.
2019 Baltas, Ioli, Artist Nick CaveSpreads a Little Joy In Boston, Surface, August 15, 2019.
2018 Hank, John, Using Art to Help the Police Understand Racism, The New York Times, March 9, 2018.
Lee, Ariana, With #BlackLivesMatter As A Backdrop,’Nine Moments For Now’ Seeks Social Justice, WBUR, November 26, 2018.
Rutledge, Mike, West Chester Woman Organizes Exhibition of Quilters From Around the World, Jounal-News, August 14, 2018.
Jones, Rachel Elizabeth, Art Review: ‘The Fabric of Emancipation,’ Rokeby Museum, Seven Days, July 18, 2018.
Editorial Staff, Best of 2018: Our Top 20 Exhibitions Across the United States, Hyperallergic, December 20, 2018.
PANEL DISCUSSIONS & LECTURES
2021 Barricades: I am the Story, The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African American Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Now + There Asks Conversation with Cathy Stone and L’Merchie Frazier, Beacon Hill, Boston, MA
Claudia Rankine – Just Us in conversation with L’Merhie Frazier, Center for Equity and Cultural Wealth, Bunker Hill Community College
2020 Castle of Our Skins / Kennedy Center Couch Concerts, Arts Across America – Black Women Composers, Washington D.C.
Stroom in the Netherlands: US Care, International Artists Conference, Den Haag, Netherlands
2019 Nine Moments from Now, Conversation with Mildred Howard and L’Merchie Frazier, The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African American Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Hacking the Archive: Co-designing the Next 50 Years, MIT, Cambridge, MA
Equity and Cultural Wealth Institute, Bunker Hill Community College, Charlestown, MA
2018 Ain’t I A Woman, Black Feminists, Hibernian Hall, Roxbury, MA
Monuments: Shaping Public Space, Memory and Culture, Re-imagining Public Monuments, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2016 Making Freedom Where They Stand: 18th and 19th Century Black Entrepreneurs, General Electric Aerospace Facility, Lynn, MA
2015 Making Freedom Where They Stand: 18th and 19th Century Black Entrepreneurs, National Urban League of Boston
Let Your Motto Be Resistance: Rebellion and Grace, MassArt, Boston, MA
Juxtapositions: The Collages of Romare Bearden and August Wilson, J. P. Morgan Chase, Boston, MA
2011 Is Freedom Visible? The Amistad Incident, Newton Public Library, Newton, MA
For Arts’ Sake: The Voice of Change, New England Blacks in Philanthropy Conference, Boston, MA
2010 Art as Document: Visual Literacy, Treasures from the Collection, Museum of African American History, Boston, MA
Black Women Entrepreneurs in History, GRLZ Radio, Boston, MA
2009 Boston’s African American Community in the 18th and 19th Centuries, Boston Bar Association, Boston, MA
WCQN – African American Art Quilters – Aesthetics, Reason and Organizations, University of Veritas, San Jose, Costa Rica and University of Costa Rica Limon, Costa Rica
African American Agency, Brandeis University African Forum Development Seminar, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
2008 Reflect, Reinvest, Revitalize: Preserving the African American Experience: A Gathering Place for Freedom, AAAM Association of African American Museums, Chicago, IL
African American Agency of the 18th and 19th Centuries, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, October
Museum Partnerships: Museum of African American History, Boston Public Library and IMLS, ASALH Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Birmingham, AL
Sustaining Communities: The Power of Museums, A Gathering Place for Freedom, NEMA New England Museum Association Conference, Warwick, RI
Black History Month: Early Black Communities, Massachusetts Port Authority, Boston, MA
Black History Month: Early Black Contributions in Art and History, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Boston, MA
African American Agency, African American Genealogy Society Conference
CONSULTANCY & CURATORIAL PROJECTS
1995 – Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists
2011 – present FABLabs for America, Inc.
2012 – present INsights Consultants / Next Level
2007-2016 Shattuck Hospital Poetry Residence 2016 – 2017 Wesleyan University Center for African American Studies
TEACHING
2007-2015 Pine Manor College, Chestnut Hill, MA
2015 – 2016 Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
2014 Bunker Hill Community College, Charlestown, MA
2008 – 2010 MIT, Cambridge, MA