Toledo artist Brenda Singletary will discuss the inspirations and imagery behind her sculptural, mixed-media paintings at a free artist talk and reception at 20 North Gallery in Toledo, Ohio, on Thursday 10 September 2026 from 6 to 8 p.m. The evening opens at 6 p.m. with mingling and refreshments, the interview begins at 6.30 p.m., a short audience question-and-answer session follows, and the reception continues until 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public (sources: the gallery’s announcement of 10 August 2026 and its newsletter).
Rhonda Sewell, director of advocacy and external affairs at the Toledo Museum of Art, will conduct the interview. That is the museum’s only involvement; the exhibition and the event are organised and presented by 20 North Gallery.
The talk accompanies Singletary’s solo exhibition ‘Brenda Singletary: We Hold These Truths…’, on view from 11 July to 19 September 2026, which opened with a free public reception on Saturday 11 July. The gallery describes sculptural, mixed-media paintings celebrating her family’s history of military service and marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. Included are new paintings from her ‘Love Letter to a Complicated Nation’ series, combining photography, paint, wire, found objects, textured canvas and other fibre materials; the newsletter also lists retired American flags among the materials. The work illustrating the talk announcement, ‘The Smile Beneath the Uniform’, depicts the artist’s father, a Second World War veteran, in uniform.
Singletary was born in Detroit and works from a studio in downtown Toledo. She holds a BA from Morris Brown College, a historically Black college in Atlanta, and an MFA-IA from Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, and began her career in public affairs for broadcast news in Atlanta before moving into the fine arts. An online exhibition catalogue with artist information and images of the works accompanies the show, and Toledo City Paper published a review by Steven E. Sloan on 7 August 2026.
20 North Gallery, founded in 1993 and described on its own site as the oldest independent art gallery in Toledo, is at 18 N. St. Clair Street and is open Wednesday to Saturday, noon to 4 p.m., or by appointment. Its newsletter advises that on Friday 4 and Saturday 5 September there will be no vehicular access or parking on St. Clair Street after 2 p.m. because of Mud Hens home games, with regular gallery hours unaffected.
