Randell Henry

Randell Henry

Baton Rouge, LA

Louisiana-based artist Randell Henry’s language is abstraction. Recognizing that he was an artist early in life, he spent much of his middle school years reading art books and learning about Impressionism, Surrealism, and other modern art movements. His paintings and mixed media work contribute to the language of contemporary abstraction and improvisation.

Inspired by African art and abstract expressionism, Henry developed his own language, employing line, form, and color to express ideas related to family, mythology, and the blues. His unique way of playing with layered shape and pattern in his paintings and mixed media assemblages create complex images that are formalist in their approach, but symbolic and representative of the world that inspires him.

Being of Baton Rouge, Henry’s reflection on the community was an important inclusion in the And We Went exhibition. His mixed media work captures the importance of assembling within the Black community. Mardi Gras in New Orleans; Carnival in the Caribbean; House in the Park in Atlanta, Georgia, and Black Brooklyn Block Party are all examples of the importance of gathering and building celebratory safe spaces for the exchange of ideas, commerce, and cultural connection.

Work on view