Howardena Pindell: In Conversation, with Naomi Beckwith and Amy Tobin
We are thrilled to announce that renowned American artist Howardena Pindell will be joining us for a conversation on the eve of her first solo exhibition in the UK at Victoria Miro London. Working across figuration, abstraction and conceptualism, Howardena Pindell has since the 1970s examined a wide range of subject matter, from the personal and diaristic to the social and political. Texture, colour, structure and process are employed in her work to mine history (and hidden histories) and address intersecting issues such as racism, feminism, violence and exploitation.
Pindell is known for employing unconventional materials such as glitter, talcum powder, even perfume, in her work and for rendering visible traces of labour, such as obsessively affixed dots of pigment and paper circles made with a hole punch, or canvases cut into strips and sewn back together, which signify wider, metaphorical processes of deconstruction and reconstruction.
Pindell’s achievements as an artist are equaled by her role as a curator, educator and activist. She was the first black female curator at the Museum of Modern Art, and a co-founder of the pioneering feminist A.I.R. Gallery. In 1979, she began teaching at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, where she remains a professor. In 2019 Pindell was awarded the Distinguished Artist Award for Lifelong Achievement by the College Art Association.
Pindell’s work has been featured in many landmark museum exhibitions since 1971. Most recently, her work has appeared in: Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power (Tate Modern), We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–1985 (2017, the Brooklyn Museum, New York), Energy/Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction, 1964–1980 (2006, The Studio Museum in Harlem), High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting, 1967–1975 (2006, Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro), WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution(2007, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles).
Organised by Dr Jo Applin (The Courtauld)