Liberation, Celebration & Defiance: Orlonda Uffre-Freedom Dance

Orlonda Uffre is a California artist, curator and educator, originally from Brooklyn, New York, and although very much an American, her mother's Caribbean heritage has forever permeated her sense of self, her thoughts and her art.

Orlonda began her career as an artist, when she was accepted to the HS of Art & Design in New York City, and studied with Alvin Hollingsworth at the Art Students League in New York. She received her MFA from the California Institute of Integral Studies in 2009.

During the 30 plus years between New York and California, her artistic trajectory was punctuated by her activities as a founding organizer of the Womens InterArt Center in New York, and as a founding organizer and Artistic Director for Brava! for Women in the Arts, in San Francisco California. Most recently, she has taken the role as Lead Curator for Art of the African Diaspora, at the Richmond Art Center, and at the organizations Satellite exhibits. She has served as curator and juror for multiple arts and culture organizations including the Women's Foundation, AfroSolo Arts Festival, Vida Gallery of the Women's Building, and the Sargent Johnson Gallery.

Uffre has exhibited her paintings and photographs throughout the US - including shows at PCOG Gallery in New York, Limner Gallery New York, MarketWatch in San Francisco, the San Francisco African American Historical & Cultural Society at Fort Mason in CA, the Commonwealth Club of California, Bomani Gallery in San Francisco, Joyce Gordon Gallery in Oakland, Thelma Harris Gallery in Oakland, the Fort Smith Arkansas Convention Center, the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, CA. and the Marin Community Foundation, in Novato CA.

She was honored by the US State Department’s Art in Embassies Program, which chose her paintings for the Ambassadorial Residence in 2001 -2003 in Maputo Mozambique and was a featured artist and interviewed by the International Museum of Women in 2008.

Additional awards were garnered from Touchstone Gallery in Washington, DC, the Richmond Art Center in Richmond, CA and from the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Ill. Her photography was included in the MOAD Stories Project, capturing the aftermath of Katrina, entitled “Shelter from the Storm”.