Collections by Michelle Brown WSG New York-Based Sculptor Vinne Bagwell

Vinnie Bagwell is a sculptor who creates three-dimensional and bas-relief sculptures in bronze and bronze resin. Born in Yonkers, New York she is an untutored artist who began sculpting in 1993.
She has the rare ability to cross over between illustration, graphic design, painting, and sculpture. Her portraits display immense spirit and authenticity. She has powers of observation and an innate understanding of proportion.
Her first commission: “The First Lady of Jazz Ella Fitzgerald” was commissioned by the City of Yonkers in 1996. It is the first sculpture of a contemporary African-American woman to be commissioned by a municipality in the United States. In 2018, a sculpture of Hartford educator, “Walter ‘Doc’ Hurley”, commissioned by the State of Connecticut, became the first public artwork of a contemporary African American in Connecticut. A life-sized sculpture of music icon Marvin Gaye has also commissioned for the new Marvin Gaye Recreation Center in NE DC.
After ten years she will complete the Enslaved Africans’ Rain Garden, the urban-heritage public-art project for the City of Yonkers, New York, to commemorate the legacy of the first enslaved Africans to be released by law in the United States, 64 years before the Emancipation Proclamation. She will also complete and install “Sojourner Truth” for the Walkway Over the Hudson” in Poughkeepsie, NY and begin the creation of “Victory…” a 15’ angel to replace the J. Marion Sims on Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street for New York City.