I make group portraits that explore the subject of collective identity. Although the events of the last year have recontextualized the work, my primary thematic concerns remain the same: group allegiance, power, and the public vs. private self. As congregate activity has turned more ominous, more urgent and more alluring, the imagery I draw from – pre-pandemic collections of people at exhibitions, political rallies, festivals, sporting events and protests – has become newly loaded with anxious nostalgia.
I construct my paintings from images that are based on, or that resonate with, my personal experience, drawing on a broad range of source materials: pictures found online, photos that I have taken, snapshots shared with me by friends, and direct observation from models. Shown in an unguarded moment of vulnerability and reflection, the subjects of the painting exist in a state of suspension between individual and collective identity.
My work examines the ways in which we are primed as humans to make quick decisions, and to assign in- and out-group status to people we encounter, based on very subtle signs. As a means of interrupting and interrogating that process, I present the subjects of my portraits out of context, with minimal visual cues regarding location. I am interested in the ways people communicate shared identity in the absence of clear markers, and in competing theories of the crowd (as unified organism versus an aggregate of individuals). How do individual gestures, amplified through proximity and repetition, present as a collective, physical force, and what causes us to interpret these shared movements as either threatening or benign?
I intend my work to be neither critical nor celebratory. The paintings that are mostly about joyful solidarity are often tinged with unease (a feeling that has certainly been amplified by recent events). At the same time, I want my paintings to feel humane, even when I am depicting people whose behaviors I find alienating or confounding. It is important to me that, even in a moment when group activity feels distant and dangerous, the work is still able to consider the radical possibilities of pleasure and collective effervescence — to temper discomfort with hope.
Artist Biography
Mary Henderson is a visual artist living and working in Philadelphia. She teaches painting and drawing part-time at St. Joseph’s University; she is also a co-director for the Philadelphia site of the nonprofit network of artist-run spaces, Tiger Strikes Asteroid. She received an AB with honors in fine arts from Amherst College in Amherst, MA, and an MFA in painting from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. Recent shows include her solo show, Public Views, at Lyons Wier Gallery (New York, NY), as well as group shows at Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum (Mesa, AZ), Wilding Cran Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), the Woodmere Museum (Philadelphia, PA), and the Ringling College of Art and Design (Sarasota, FL). She was a finalist for the 2019 Bennett Prize and has been awarded a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship, a PCA SOS grant, and residencies at the Jentel Foundation and the Hambidge Center (where she was the Nena Griffith Distinguished Fellow). Her work has been featured or reviewed in Harper's Magazine, L’Espresso (Italy), New American Paintings, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Art in America, among other publications. In 2017, Her recent curatorial projects include Sagas at Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Philadelphia, PA), Anachronism and Liberation at Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Philadelphia, PA) and LOCUM, at University City Arts League (Philadelphia, PA).
Education
2001 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA MFA, Painting
1997 Brandeis University, Waltham, MA Post-Baccalaureate, Studio Art
1995 Amherst College, Amherst, MA AB cum laude, Fine Arts
1994 Studio Art Centers International, Florence, Italy
Awards & Honors
2019 Nena Griffith Distinguished Fellowship, Hambidge Center, Raburn Gap, GA
2018 The Bennett Prize, Finalist
2005 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts SOS Grant, Visual Arts – Painting
2004 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts SOS Grant, Visual Arts – Painting
2003 Jentel Artist Residency, Banner, WY
2000 Neil Welliver Award, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
1999 - 2001 Chairman’s Scholarship, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Bibliography
2018 Williams, Austin R., "Playing to the Crowd," Artists Magazine, September Issue
2017 Black, Ezra Jean, "Imitation of Life: Really? (Group Show Curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody)," Artillery, December 23, 2017
Dingli, Ann, "Privacy has been obliterated, we just haven’t come to terms with it," Interview, I think I like it, September 15, 2017
Neely, Hallie, "Art Out: Mary Henderson: Public Views," Museé Magazine, September 15, 2017
2015 Fresh Paint Magazine, Issue 6, February
2014 Gauss, Daniel “Nothing fails like success! Mary Henderson 'Sunday Paintings” Lyons Wier Gallery,” Examiner.com, March 11, 2014
2004 Cover image, XConnect: Writers of the Information Age, Vol. 6, Philadelphia: Cross Connect, Inc., 2004
2001 New American Paintings: MFA 2001, Open Studios Press, Boston, MA
Collections
Burger Collection, Switzerland Nicholls Collection, CT Rickert Collection, CA Sender Collection, NY West Collection, PA
Professional Experience
2019 - Present Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Philadelphia, PA Co-director, member since 2016
Lesley University, Boston, MA MFA Artist Mentor
2010 - Present St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia, PA Adjunct Professor, Fine Arts
2015 - 2019 University City Arts League, Philadelphia, PA Gallery Committee
2009 School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Lecturer
2001 - 2006 St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia, PA Adjunct Professor, Fine Arts
Exhibitions
Solo and Two-person
2017 Public Views, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
2014 Sunday Paintings, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
2011 Bathers, Lyons Wier Gallery, New York, NY
2008 Forces, Lyons Wier/Ortt, New York, NY
2006 Right Clique, Lyons Wier /Ortt, New York, NY
Recollection: Mary Henderson and Susan Slattery, InLiquid at the Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, PA
2004 Thrills, Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL
Amusements, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA
2003 Album, Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL
Group
2020 Rising Voices, Bennett Prize Exhibition Traveling Exhibition: Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI; Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA; University of Tampa, Scarfone/Hartley Gallery, Tampa, FL; Studio Incamminati, Philadelphia, PA: Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh, PA
I’ve Come to Look for America, Dunedin Fine Art Center, Dunedin, FL
2019 Truth Lies Beyond, Pop-up at Foley Gallery, New York, NY
IRL: Investigating Reality, Untitled Space New York, NY
Your Plus One, Mount Airy Contemporary, Philadelphia, PA
Seeing Red, Thinkspace, Los Angeles, CA
Sagas, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Philadelphia, PA
All of Us, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia
2018 Celebration of Summer, Arcadia Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
Bodies of a Different Mass, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Los Angeles, CA
We the People, Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, Mesa, AZ
2017 - 2018 Really?, Wilding Cran Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Catalog
2017 Tone of Intention, InLiquid at Lacey and Phillips Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2016 12 by 12 in 12, Arcadia Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
Observation/Reference/Gesture, Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, FL
A Body Has No Center (On Touching), Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Philadelphia, PA
Seeing Is Believing, Mount Airy Contemporary, Philadelphia, PA
Woodmere Annual, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA
2015 Works on Paper, Pagus Gallery, Norristown, PA
Shape Play, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Philadelphia, PA
RESPOND, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY
2014 B¡ngo!, Platform Gallery, Baltimore, MD
2012-2013 We Could Be Heroes: The Mythology of Monsters and Heroes in Contemporary Art, The Museum of Art, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
2009 Mirror Mirror: Contemporary Portraits and the Fugitive Self, The Museum of Art, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT,
Consequential, Addams Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
2008 As Others See Us, Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT
2005 Reality Show, Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont, NY
Operation RAW, Ice Box Project Space, Philadelphia, PA
2004 Young Painters Competition 2004, Miami University, Oxford, OH
2003 Compendium, Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL
really, gescheidle, Chicago, IL
Momenta Art Benefit 2003, Momenta Art, Brooklyn, NY and White Columns, New York, NY
2002 - 2006 White Columns Artist Registry
Drawing Center Viewing Room
2002 Less Than One, Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont, NY
12”x12”, Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL
Night of 1000 Drawings, Artists Space, New York, NY
2001 Talking Heads, Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont, NY
The Future is Now, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington, DE
New Talent, Gross-McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Selected Curatorial Projects
2018 Sagas, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Philadelphia, PA Co-curator with Mark Brosseau Exhibition essay by Carolyn Chernoff
2017 Anachronism and Liberation, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Philadelphia, PA Co-curator with Jane Irish Exhibition essay by Crispin Sartwell
Locum, University City Arts League, Philadelphia, PA Co-curator with Caroline Santa
