Beth Coleman

Beth Coleman gained a BA from Yale University in 1991, and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from NYU in 2004. She is an Assistant Professor of Writing and New Media in the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies and Comparative Media Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, USA. She has written a number of texts on the work of Chris Ofili, for a number of his exhibition catalogues.

For The Upper Room, a catalogue produced by the Victoria Miro Gallery to accompany an exhibition by Chris Ofili, Coleman contributed an essay, Those Who Share at the Table. The Upper Room was published on the occasion of the exhibition, Freedom One Day, 25 June - 3 August, 2002, held at the Victoria Miro Gallery.

The Upper Room took place, appropriately, on the upper level of Victoria Miro Gallery. A concurrent exhibition, Freedom One Day, took place on the ground floor of the gallery. There were separate catalogues for each of the two exhibitions.

In 2003, Coleman again wrote on Ofili, for Within Reach, a catalogue produced by Victoria Miro Gallery to accompany the presentation of Chris Ofili at the British Pavilion, Venice 2003. (This was the 50th Venice Biennale, 15 June - 2 November 2003).

Coleman’s text - Theory of Messages - appeared in Volume One of the three-volume publication.

She also contributed the essay Mano a Mano to the exhibition catalogue Chris Offili: Afro Muses 1995 - 2005. The exhibition took place at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, 27 April - 3 July 2005 - Curated by Thelma Golden.

»  Chris Ofili - The Upper Room - Victoria Miro Gallery

Catalogue relating to an exhibition, 2002

»  Chris Ofili | Afro Muses 1995 - 2005

Catalogue relating to an exhibition, 2005

»  Chris Ofili | Within Reach

Catalogue relating to an exhibition, 2003