Howardena Pindell: A New Language

Writing in the 1980s, the American artist Howardena Pindell pointed to the need for ‘a new language’ for people of colour working in the arts – one which ‘empowers us and does not cause us to participate in our own disenfranchisement’. This retrospective – the artist’s first institutional show in the UK, opening at the Fruitmarket in Edinburgh (13 November–2 May 2022) before touring to Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge and Spike Island in Bristol – takes its title from Pindell’s phrase, and explores how she has fashioned her own, highly individual artistic language from the 1970s to the present day. It includes her abstract paintings and collages, often made with hole-punched hand stencils, as well as works on canvas and films that directly address topics such as the Aids crisis, apartheid and police violence. Find out more from the Fruitmarket’s website.

Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here  

Rope/Fire/Water (2020), Howardena Pindell. Courtesy the artist, Garth Greenan Gallery, and Victoria Miro

Untiled (Stencil) (1970), Howardena Pindell. Courtesy the artist, Garth Greenan Gallery, and Victoria Miro

Columbus (2020), Howardena Pindell. Courtesy the artist, Garth Greenan Gallery, and Victoria Miro

Text (1975), Howardena Pindell. Courtesy the artist, Garth Greenan Gallery, and Victoria Miro

Free, White and 21 (1980), Howardena Pindell. Courtesy the artist, Garth Greenan Gallery, and Victoria Miro