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Dr. Monroe Harris with a painting by Amy Sherald. In 2015, Harris and his wife purchased this portrait by Amy Sherald, who, in 2018, painted the iconic portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama that now hangs in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
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“Three Women of America” by Elizabeth Catlett, a 1990 painting of women from different ethnic backgrounds overlapping one another, represents racial harmony.
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An African Nouveau ceramic sculpture by Woodrow Nash. “He uses a lot of iconography in his pieces — it’s absolutely fantastic what he does,” Harris says.
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A Midcentury Benin bronze statue from Nigeria is positioned in a corner of a room off the living room. “We call him the guard of the house,” Harris says.
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An abstract painting of famous boxer and activist Muhammad Ali in 1964 reminds Harris of his hometown roots. “Ali grew up a few blocks from where I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky,” he says.
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“Spirit of the Frogs,” an acrylic on canvas by Murry DePillars, a former dean of VCUarts, is part of the artist’s quilt series, which uses colorful shapes and animal figures to tell a story.
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This piece by Jacob Lawrence, whom Harris calls “one of the master artists of the 20th century,” depicts Toussaint Louverture, the famous leader of the Haitian Revolution.
Dr. Monroe Harris’ home is a museum in its own right. Harris and his wife, Jill, built their expansive French château-style home in Lockgreen with space to display their vast art collection. Each piece tells a powerful story about the roles that Africans and African Americans have played in shaping global culture and history.
The couple and their two children moved into the home in 2003. Harris and his wife moved to Richmond in 1988 after Harris, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, completed his residency training at the University of Chicago. Since then, his practice, Virginia Oral & Facial Surgery, has grown from three locations with four doctors to six locations with nine doctors.
Harris is deeply involved with the Richmond community: He is past president of the board of Virginia Repertory Theatre and board chair of the Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia, and he serves on the board of the American Civil War Museum. After five years on the board of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Harris was elected board president in 2018, becoming the first African American to hold the position in VMFA’s history. Also in 2018, he was named one of the Richmond Times-Dispatch People of the Year.
“To me, it’s about the preservation of culture,” he says. “Though I’m not an artist myself, I appreciate art and how it plays a role in our everyday lives. It’s important to know that we have to observe, motivate and propagate art in our cultural institutions so it can be here for future generations.”
However, Harris does see a connection between his surgical profession and art: “You have to have an eye for things and an understanding of spatial relationships,” he says.
Above all, Harris views art as a bridge between cultures that exists despite social and political differences. “It ties us all together as we come to appreciate the beauty and history of art,” he says. “I’m happy to be part of an effort to make sure this happens now and in the future.”
