Work samples

  • Aroundthewaygirl_collage_2021.jpg
    Aroundthewaygirl_collage_2021.jpg
    Around The Way Girl, Collage, 13x9, 2021
  • 02_Blackwomaneatingchicken.jpg
    02_Blackwomaneatingchicken.jpg
    Black Woman Eating Chicken, Collage, 13x9, 2021
  • Waitingforaseatatthetable_collage_briasterlingwilson.jpg
    Waitingforaseatatthetable_collage_briasterlingwilson.jpg
    Waiting For A Seat At The Table, Collage, 10x10, 2021
  • BSW_Joanponcella7.jpg
    BSW_Joanponcella7.jpg
    Joan Poncella, Collage, 20x30, 2022

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About Bria

Baltimore City Highlandtown AE District  

Bria Sterling-Wilson is a photographer and collage artist from Baltimore, Maryland. Sterling-Wilson is profound in expressing the beauty and complexities of the African American community.
"Through the utilization of magazine clippings, newspaper, and fabric I am recontextualizing found materials to confront how the African American man and woman is represented and perceived in society. In these works, I present individuals juxtaposed with contrasting hair, facial features… more

Jump to a project:

Home (Handle With Care)

In Sterling-Wilson’s solo exhibition Home (Handle with Care), she explores the idea of “home” beyond a roof and four walls. Instead, she examines how any environment can provide a domicile feeling of home. Through her mixed-media collages, she contrasts the feelings of comfort and sustainability with the repercussions of destruction and/or invasion. This exhibition visually articulates stunning scenes of the Black experience through layers of found imagery.  Sterling-Wilson’s visceral fragmented compositions allow for her to express the complexities prevalent in the black culture and society. Home (Handle with Care) reveals the beauty in the mundane and confronts the challenges that Black America has faced in the past and in present day.  
  • Joan Poncella
    Joan Poncella
    Collage,20x30, 2022
  • La Salle de Sejour
    La Salle de Sejour
    Collage, 11x15, 2022
  • Boudoir
    Boudoir
    Collage, 20x30, 2022
  • Slow Burn
    Slow Burn
    Collage, 20x24, 2022
  • Cream and Sugar?
    Cream and Sugar?
    Collage, 5x7, 2022
  • Around The Way Girl
    Around The Way Girl
    Collage, 13x9, 2022
  • Cookout
    Cookout
    Collage, 20x24, 2022
  • I Got The City On My Back
    I Got The City On My Back
    Collage, 9.25x 10.75, 2022
  • Corner Store
    Corner Store
    Collage, 12x15, 2022
  • Rear Window
    Rear Window

    • Behind Closed Doors

    Continuing my explorations of the concept of home, I build upon this idea by constructing domestic interior settings that unrobes our performative nature presented to society and exposes the intimate and private moments that occur behind closed doors. In this exhibition I present jarring juxtapositions, commanding portraits, and sumptuous scenes of spliced reality. Extracting components from family photo albums, vintage magazines, and found imagery the seamless fragmented layers delve into themes of gender roles, representation, sexuality, identity, relationships, and racism through the artistic medium of collage. Behind closed doors entangles viewers in a seductive web of self-examination begging to ask the question who are we when no one is watching?
    • If Looks Could Kill #1
      If Looks Could Kill #1
      Collage, 25x30, 2022
    • If Looks Could Kill #2
      If Looks Could Kill #2
      Collage, 25x30, 2022
    • If Looks Could Kill #3
      If Looks Could Kill #3
      Collage, 25x30, 2022
    • Sticks and Stones
      Sticks and Stones
      Collage, 7x10, 2022
    • Let It Burn
      Let It Burn
      Collage, 9x15, 2022
    • Smoke Signals
      Smoke Signals
      Collage, 9x15, 2022
    • Wifey Material
      Wifey Material
      Collage, 12x15, 2022
    • Close The Blinds
      Close The Blinds
      Collage, 13x9, 2022
    • Mirror Mirror (Who's The Baddest Of Them All)
      Mirror Mirror (Who's The Baddest Of Them All)
      Collage, 12x8, 2022
    •

    • Bountiful

    The collage artworks in Bountiful bring together seductive scenes of abundance and adornments. These tantalizing  displays are full of allurements such as diamonds, extravagant clothes, and decor that feed our society’s ever-present unhealthy relationship to materialism. These items, juxtaposed with the Black female body, adds an element of objectivity and the transactional nature in which Black women’s bodies have been viewed through history. 

    With each image, Sterling-Wilson has constructed a setting that showcases women in commanding postures accompanied by desirable items. Through these works, she has given herself permission to embrace these ornaments and use them as objects of power. By looking beyond their materialistic nature, the items operate as a metaphor for ways in which women reclaim their power through warranted attainment.

    - Curator, Thomas James 


    • Playgirl
      Playgirl
      Collage, 11x5, 2022
    • Bon Vivant
      Bon Vivant
      Collage, 20x30, 2022
    • Diamond Girl
      Diamond Girl
      Collage, 11x5, 2022
    • Fruits of Your Labor
      Fruits of Your Labor
      Collage, 15x8, 2022
    • Ritual
      Ritual
      Collage, 12x12, 2022
    • Classic Beauty
      Classic Beauty
      Collage, 13x15, 2021
    • Tea Party
      Tea Party
      Collage, 20x10, 2021
    • Royalty
      Royalty
      Collage, 15x13, 2020
    •