Evangeline Montgomery, whose life’s work bridged the worlds of artistic creation and arts advocacy, has died, leaving behind a rich legacy of expression and empowerment. Throughout her life, Ms. Montgomery dedicated herself to the arts—whether through her own creative practice or by helping others realize their visions in various roles of arts leadership and support. Her work represents an abstract exploration of color, form, and nature, presented across a wide range of media.

“In today’s art, often one has to combine many materials for the piece to take on the shape, color, and excitement one wishes the viewer to experience. My inspiration comes from nature first, and second from the twisted rubble and discarded forms left by man against the beautiful forms of nature.”
— Black Artists on Art, Vol. 1, p. 86

Born in New York City in 1930, Montgomery moved to Los Angeles in 1955, where she worked for Thomas Usher, an African American jewelry designer. She attended Los Angeles City College and later earned a BFA from the California College of Arts & Crafts, specializing in metallurgy.

In 1967, Montgomery began her work as an independent curator. Over the course of her career, she organized more than 150 exhibitions in museums, university galleries, and art centers. She served as curator for the Rainbow Sign Gallery in Berkeley, California, and later as Black Arts Consultant for the Oakland Museum. There, she curated a major retrospective of Sargent Johnson’s work and the landmark exhibition California Black Craftsmen, while also helping the museum build its African American art collection. From 1976 to 1979, she served as Art Commissioner for the city of San Francisco.

In 1980, Montgomery relocated to Washington, D.C., where she continued her commitment to cultural exchange as a program development officer with the U.S. Department of State's Arts America program.

Montgomery continued to create and show her work throughout her career. She shifted her focus to etching, lithography, and monoprint. after she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 1994. Her work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions including;

New Perspectives in Black Art, Kaiser Center Gallery, Oakland, CA, 1968.  (curator)

Evangeline J. Montgomery, Bowie State College, 1973

Local Color: 17 Black Bay Area Artists, Fiberworks Center for the Textile Arts, Berkeley, CA, 1978

Evangeline J. Montgomery: On the Threshold, Secret Places, National Conference of Artists Gallery, 1998

Successions: Prints by African American Artists from the Jean and Robert Steele Collection, University of Maryland, 2002.

From Challenge to Triumph: African American Prints and Printmaking, 1867-2002, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art, Brooklyn, NY, 2003.

Tradition Redefined: The Larry and Brenda Thompson Collection of African American Art, David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland, 2009

Our Common Bond: Mother, Daughter, Sister, Self, Galerie Myrtis, Baltimore, MD, 2009

Memories Revealed: Current Works by E.J. Montgomery, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD, 2010

Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, 2017-2018