Artist, CHROMA member, Teaching Artist
Visual
Contact: Antonio Howard
Phone: (814) 506-7085
Address:
PO Box 1012
Erie, PA 16512
Email Website Back to Directory
As a formerly imprisoned artist, I create prison art: that category of art invoked by critics to describe art produced by those of us they don’t acknowledge as “real artists.” In the beginning, I painted my moods. Now, I paint my experiences, so each of my paintings serve as evidence of my whereabouts between the years 1991 and 2018.
My artistic process involves simply getting out of my own way and leaving the creativity to my sub-conscience and transmitting what it crates instead of translating it. That is to say, what ends up on canvas isn’t always thought out. I just paint. And since any message that comes through is more of an interpretation by the observer my art speaks to, I tend to let others name them and keep what they mean to me to myself. Acrylics are my preferred medium because they dry fastest, I prefer synthetic brushers because they retain their shape longer and don’t leave bristles in the paint.
ANTONIO HOWARD - Artist and Community Leader
Antonio Howard | Facebook @antoniohoward_artist | Instagram
I am a shelf-taught artist—that’s not a typo. Shelf-taught because what didn’t come naturally as a developing artist emerged through guidance gleaned from instructional books purchased with money earned from the sale of my paintings. Thus, one of my achievements as an artist was my ability to support myself under circumstances designed to rob a man of everything. Prison is where I developed my artistic talents. Although I often dreamed of being an escape artist, as a visual artist, my paintings broke free of that place long before I did. From a prison cell, I participated in an art show at Eastern State Penitentiary, the Erie Art museum Frame Shop Gallery, and was featured on the front page of Erie times Newspaper in August of 2003. In 2019, one of my paintings: Prison is Where Relationships Go to Die, was accepted in the Spring show at the Erie Art Museum.
2021--Jurist, Erie County Poet Laureate Initiative
2021--PA Council of the Arts; Roster Teaching Artist
2021-- Erie County Redevelopment Authority Startup Business Grant Award, Murals by Antonio Howard
2019--Erie Arts and Culture Ignite Art Grant
2019--Erie Arts and Culture Emerging Artist Award
2023--Hoyt Hug Welcome Mat, Hoyt Center for Arts, New Castle PA (805 sq. ft)
2023--Purposeful Placemaking, The Historical Institute of Culture and the African American Experience, Erie PA (162 sq. ft.)
2023--Autism Society of NW PA, Erie PA (172 sq. ft.)
2023--Flashship City Food Hall (9’x6’ panel)
2022--Mercy Center for Women, Erie, PA (250 sq. ft)
2022--Diversity Week, Erie Insurance Group, (12, 9’x6’ panels)
2022--Purposeful Placemaking, Atkinson’s Barbershop, Erie, PA (400 sq. ft)
2022--Creating with Community, 19th Street Corridor, Erie, PA (200 sq. ft)
2021--Carla Hughes, Erie County Arts & Technology (ECAT), (Assistant Muralist to Mwanel Pierre-Louis), Erie PA
2021--Purple Martins, Bayfront Eastside Task Force, Erie PA
2021--City of Erie's Bandwagons, Erie PA (1,364 sq. ft)
2021--Tree of Life, MHA of NWPA, Erie PA
2020--Bethel Apostolic Church, Erie PA
2020--Whole Food Co-Op, Erie PA
2020--Manus Sunoco Station, Erie PA (1300 sq. ft.)
2016--Minions, SCI Huntingdon Visiting Room, Huntingdon PA
2016--Perry Arts Counsel, Huntingdon PA
2015--Pathway to Landscapes, SCI Huntingdon, Huntingdon PA
2015--One Day, SCI Huntingdon, Huntingdon PA
2014--Childish Fun, SCI Huntingdon, Huntingdon PA
2022--Legacy, Flagship City Foodhall
2021--Book Cover, Teaching In/Between: Curating Educational Spaces with autohistoria–teoría and conocimiento (Curating and Interpreting Culture) by Dr. Leslie Sotomayor II
2021--Fair and Just Prosecution Artist contribution to book: Change from Within: Reimagining the 21st–Century Prosecutor
2020--Erie Blues and Jazz – 2020 Festival Poster
2019--Harry T. Burleigh Portrait commemorating Harry T. Burleigh Week
2021--NPAA Juried Biennial, Erie Art Museum, Erie PA
2021--Arts and Drafts, Erie PA
2021--The Family that Creates Together (10|20 Collective Gallery), Erie PA
2021--Let's Pretend, Art Exhibition (Bruce Gallery of Edinboro University), Erie PA
2021--98th Annual Nicole & Harry Martin Spring, Juried Art Show, Erie Art Museum, Erie PA
2019--29th Annual Nicole & Harry Martin Spring, Juried Art Show, Erie Art Museum, Erie PA
2019--Jay & Mona Kang Art Show & Sale (Barber National Institute), Erie PA
2019--Attic Rehab, Erie PA
2019--Arts and Drafts, Erie PA
2010--Erie Art Museum Frameshop Gallery
2001--Unimaginable Isolation: Stories from Graterford Prison, Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site; Painted Bride Art Center; University of the Arts Great Hall; The Village of Arts and Humanities, Philadelphia PA, (Curated by Lily Yeh)
2021--Erie County Blasco Library
2021--Gannon University Black History Month Virtual Celebration
2023--Blasco Memorial Library-Huirt Aditorium, (Erie, PA)
2023--Homecoming, Erie Regional Chamber & Growth Partnership, (Erie PA)
2023--Black Masculinity panel discussion, Dr. Parris Baker, Dr. Rhonda Mathews, Dr. Adrien Dixon, ECAT-Jefferson Society (Erie PA)
2023--Knox Law, Lunch & Learn (Erie, PA)
2023--NWPA Annual Innovation Beehive Network Celebration (Allegheny College)
2023--Race in the Federal Criminal Court—Led discussion on how defense professionals can develop or deepen relationships and trust with community members, organizations, and institutions (e.g. schools, housing, health care providers, & employers) to improve case and life outcomes for clients and to strengthen families and communities using mural making (Federal Defenders Services Training Division, Dallas TX)
2023--Visual Culture & Incarceration, Guerilla Girls to RuPaul: Politics of Feminist Art
2023--Wayside Presbyterian (Erie, PA)
2023--Inner–City Neighborhood Arthouse (Erie PA)
2021--Create a Path for Change: Art in the age of mass incarceration / Restorative Justice and the Arts Amongst Juvenile Populations, Erie Arts and Culture, 2021 https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=2154603588027181&ref=watch_permalink
2021--Art in Public / Roberto Lugo (A Conversation with Antonio Howard, Roberto Lugo, and Tijay Mohammed. Moderated by Steve Prince (Bruce Gallery, Edinboro PA)
2020--Art, Freedom, and Redemption (Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Erie, Erie PA)
2023--Voices for Juvenil Justice, Passport Academy, Pgh PA
2023--Blasco Memoral Library, Erie PA
2023--Hoyt Art Center, New Castle PA
2023--Painting with Purpose, Duquesne University
2023--Autism Society, Erie PA
2021--Painting with Purpose, SafeNet
2021--Instrumental Abstraction, Pennsylvania Art Education Association
2020--Painting with Antonio, Erie Arts and Culture Year–End Variety Show
2023 Hoyt Art Center—New Castle News
2023 The Historical Institute of Culture and the African American Experience—Erie Reader
2023 Ex–juvenile lifer shows we can't give up on kids (Pgh Post–Gazette 2023–03–19)
2022 Mural Project Highlights Journey of Women – Faith Magazine
2022 The Power of Painting: Impacting their Community – Mercy Center for Women Annual Report 2021–2022
2022 50 new murals will add to Erie's outdoor public art gallery (goerie.com)
2021 New murals to be added to Erie’s two bandwagons | WJET/WFXP/YourErie.com
2021 Edinboro's Bruce Gallery Features Erie Artists of Color – Erie Reader
2021 Antonio Howard: Creating His Own Narrative – Erie Reader
2021 Press Conference, City of Erie Bandwagons, November 19, 2021,
2021 New Murals to be added to Erie’s two bandwagons, April 24, 2021,
2021 Erie’s Public Art Project
2021 Antonio Howard: Creating His Own Narrative, Feb 10, 2021, https://youtu.be/z_5MNe1JRYQ
2020 New Erie murals to showcase work of minority artists (goerie.com)
2020 Manus mural will be dedicated in Erie on Sunday, Erie Times News, Sept. 2020
2019 Erie Arts & Culture Announces 2019 Artist Fellows – Erie Arts & Culture (erieartsandculture.org)
2019 Q&A with Erie County District Attorney Jack Daneri (goerie.com)
2004 ArtScope – Erie Art Museum Bi–monthly Newsletter Volume 6, Number 1, Feb March, 2004
2023-Present Mercy Center for Women
2021-Present Mental Health Association of NWPA
2021–Present Elsinore Benu Think Tank (Duquesne University)
2021–Present PAA (First African-American Member)
2020–Present CHROMA, Erie Arts and Culture
2020–2021 Jefferson Educational Leadership Academy
2014–2016 Altar Rock Jaycees
2022 Gannon University
· AnyOneOfUs (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
· Harry T. Burleigh Portrait (Ain’t I Worth It?)
2019 Harry T. Burleigh Legacy Alliance
· (Harry T. Burleigh Portrait commemorating Harry T. Burleigh Week)
BABATUNDE, 2021 - 98th Annual Nicole & Harry Martin Spring, Juried Art Show, Erie Art Museum, Erie PA
Harry T. Burleigh - 2019; 36"x48"; acrylic on stretched canvas
Mural - Mental Health Association of NW PA, Erie PA (84 sq. ft.)
Mural - Mercy Center for Women - Erie, PA (250 sq. ft)
Mural - Mercy Center for Women - Erie, PA (250 sq. ft)
PRISON IS WHERE RELATIONSHIPS GO TO DIE, 2019 - 29th Annual Nicole & Harry Martin Spring, Juried Art Show, Erie Art Museum, Erie PA
