May 11,1966 – October 17, 2024.
We honor Alicia Henry, the US artist whose textile work delved into themes of the family, beauty, the body and identity. Faces and masks were preeminent in her work: Untitled, (13 female figures) (2019) depicts a vast, goddesslike Black female figure with a headdress of birds and a dress of traditional African textile; two silhouetted girls flank the figure.
Meanwhile Untitled (cluster) (2019) featured a vast crowd of similarly stripped down figures, ghostly and endearing in equal measure, while Henry’s Ghanaian mask collection inspired a series of smaller fabric collages. Henry was the subject of numerous solo shows, group exhibitions, and was a professor of art at Fisk University in Nashville, one of the oldest Black universities in the United States. Photo: Alicia Henry Credit: Angelina Castillo