Brenda Zlamany

Brenda Zlamany is a Brooklyn-based painter known for reinvigorating portraiture through sustained observation and conceptual inquiry. Over three decades, she has challenged traditional power structures in portraiture by centering historically underrepresented subjects—particularly women and people of color—in institutional and public spaces.

Her work has been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery (London), the New-York Historical Society, the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, the National Museum (Gdańsk), the Frankfurter Kunstverein, and the Museum voor Schone Kunsten (Ghent). She has received a Fulbright Fellowship, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and a NYFA Artist Fellowship, and has completed residencies at the American Academy in Rome, Yaddo, MacDowell, and Denali and Glacier National Parks.

Since 2011, her project The Itinerant Portraitist has produced over 3,000 portraits globally through direct engagement with communities. Her film 100/100, created with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Aaron Kernis, won Best Documentary Short at the Greenpoint Film Festival. Recent work includes major commissions for Yale University and Rockefeller University, and a 2024 portrait of philanthropist Ruth Gottesman.

WORKS

In Progress (2026)

Photo: Ian Christmann