An opening reception for the exhibit will be held on Thursday, January 11, from 6:30–8:00 p.m. - *Please note no artists will be attending.

Exeter, NH (January 8, 2007)—From Monday, January 8 to Saturday, March 3, the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy will present “American Visions,” an exhibit of paintings by Benny Andrews, Barkley Hendricks, Richard Mayhew, and mixed-media sculpture and cloth paintings by Faith Ringgold and Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson. All works are courtesy of ACA Galleries in New York City. An opening reception for the exhibit will be held on Thursday, January 11, from 6:30–8:00 p.m. The Lamont Gallery is located in the Frederick R. Mayer Art Center on Tan Lane. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

Benny Andrews, (1930–2006) was a painter, writer, printmaker, sculptor, book illustrator and teacher whose works drew on his southern, African American roots. A storyteller at heart, his art is complex and multi-faceted, narrative, passionate and always has a message. Much of his work addresses human suffering and injustice which Andrews experienced during his childhood in segregated Georgia.  Although not easily categorized, Andrews’ works are often identified with contemporary artists Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence. Andrews studied at Fort Valley State College in Georgia, and received his bachelor’s degree from the Art Institute of Chicago. From 1968 to 1997, Andrews taught art at Queens College and from 1982 to 1984, served as director of the Visual Arts Program at the National Endowment for the Arts. For over 40 years, his works have been exhibited worldwide and in permanent collections in numerous museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Brooklyn Museum; the Hirshhorn Museum; the Detroit Institute; and the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Regarded as a master of the portrait, figure and landscape, Barkley Hendricks is a painter who works with traditional oil, acrylic and various other materials and methods. Born in Philadelphia in 1945, Hendricks attended The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and received his bachelor’s and master’s of fine art degrees from Yale University School of Fine Arts. His work has been featured in many solo and group museum exhibitions, including the Lyman Allyn Art Museum; the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; the Studio Museum of Harlem; the Chrysler Museum; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Delaware Museum of Art; the Ulrich Museum and Columbia Museum of Art; and the Smithsonian Institution, among others. Hendricks is a professor of art at Connecticut College, where he has taught since 1972.

Born in Massapequa, NY, in 1934 to Native American and African American parents, Richard Mayhew is considered one of America’s greatest living landscape painters with more than 30 solo exhibitions. His work has been described as abstract, impressionistic, realistic and romantic. He has synthesized his experiences, his heritage and the influences of his various teachers—Rubin Tam, Edwin Dickinson, Max Beckmann and Hans Hofmann. Mayhew’s works, whether they are large-scale oils or small, intimate watercolors, are acclaimed for their depth of beauty and serenity. His work is in many permanent collections, including the Metropolitan Museum; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the National Museum of American Art.

Faith Ringgold is a painter, mixed-media sculptor, teacher, humanist, lecturer and author of numerous award-winning children’s books. Born in Harlem, NY, in 1930, she became aware of racial and gender prejudices at an early age. Her evolving artistry has included social realism, performance art, soft sculpture, children’s books and her famous Story Quilts. Through her work, Ringgold strives to raise awareness of the cultural heroes and beauty within African American culture. She has received many awards and honors such as the Simon Guggenheim Award for Painting; two National Endowment for the Arts awards; and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award. She is the recipient of 18 honorary doctorates, and is Professor Emeritus at the University of California in San Diego. Ringgold’s work is in many museum collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago; the Boston Museum of Fine Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Modern Art; and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson was born in 1940 in Columbus, OH. She creates drawings, cloth paintings, woodcuts, books and sculptures which capture, preserve and celebrate the history of her native city and the places she visits. Robinson received her formal training when she studied art at Columbus College of Art and Design and Ohio State University. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a MacArthur “Genius Award” in 2004, the same year that she completed a monumental commission for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, OH. Robinson’s major retrospective, Symphonic Poem: the Art of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, was organized by the Columbus Museum of Art and traveled extensively. She has contributed illustrations to children’s books, including, To Be a Drum (Albert Whitman and Company, 1998); and her work can be found in public and private collections, including the Columbus Museum of Art; the Richmond Art Museum; and the Newark Museum. 

Gallery hours are Monday 1–5 p.m., Tuesday–Saturday 9 a.m.–5 p.m., closed on Sunday. For further information, contact the Lamont Gallery at (603) 777-3461. For directions to Phillips Exeter Academy, call (603) 777-4330. A complete list of upcoming events is available on the Phillips Exeter Academy public events line at (603) 777-4309 and on our website at www.exeter.edu.
                                  
Phillips Exeter Academy is a coeducational, independent preparatory school that was founded in 1781 and originated the system of instruction known as Harkness teaching in 1931. In the spirit of its charter to foster both goodness and knowledge, students come from a wide variety of geographic, economic, racial and religious backgrounds. The diverse student body comes from approximately 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, The Virgin Islands and 26 foreign countries.

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