Oletha Devane: Spectrum of Light and Spirit

Fifty years of DeVane’s energetic, interactive sculptures, paintings and works on paper

Maryland-based artist Oletha DeVane (born 1952) has long been a prominent presence in the Baltimore-area art scene, working in all media, including public sculpture. Spectrum of Light and Spirit documents the first full retrospective of her work, from early paintings to video artworks and interactive sculpture.
Among the works presented here is a large-scale carved sculpture, N’Kisi Woman–Universal N’Kisi (2021-22); nkisi is a Kongo cultural figure invested with sacred energy. The work reflects DeVane’s fascination with how materials convey meaning and reemerge as myths and memories.
“Oletha DeVane is a wayfinder and a storyteller,” says the retrospective’s curator, Lowery Stokes Sims. “Over the last five decades as she has traveled in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, she has been inspired by the stories and characters she encounters, bringing the unexpected to light, while finding new nuances in the old and familiar, and unexpected correlations among those varied cultures.”