The works of internationally lauded, American artist Alicia Henry catch your eye—and breath—from across the room: Large-scale installation work that’s rife with detail, Henry’s take on portraiture—pieces made from paperboard, fabric and leather that are sketched on and purposefully marked—are the sorts of pieces that reward attentive viewing, since there’s always more to see.
“I can go from really intimate and small to larger, because it can both work. So I do like height and the idea of monumental shapes and forms, but I also love the intimacy of small drawing. I can go either way,” Henry tells me as we stand under the gaze of one of her towering pieces that grazes the ceiling in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia’s lower level. On March 12, Henry’s new exhibition—titled Alicia Henry: Witnessing—opened to the public, after COVID caused a two-year wait on the impressive installation. At a press preview on March 11, when I interviewed Henry, the eyes of the Black and brown women she depicts in her work gazed over an empty room humming with anticipation.
Themes of masks, multiple selves and lineage along matriarchal lines course through Henry’s work, which often depict family and community through groups of women. The pieces expand the definition of what portraiture can be, through their use of atypical materials and frequent obscuring of the face.
“I think there can be different types of portraits. There can be non-traditional portraits where it’s not even the face,” Henry says. “It might be things that suggest the person’s characteristics that are there. This is very stylized but it’s still within that respect and nod to that genre…I love traditional portraits from the great masters to outsider or folk artists.”
Daina Augaitis, guest curator of Witnessing, points out how Henry’s works are often intentionally damaged and then repaired by the artist (like quilted dresses figures wear that are ripped and then sewn with bright thread, or scratches that mimic scars). “I love this idea of mending that she’s always involved in. Also, this community of women, all women in this piece come together and there’s such strength in that,” she says. When I ask Henry what she hopes people will think when leaving the exhibit, she makes quick eye contact with one of her pieces before replying: “Hopefully they’re thinking about where they come from, what they’re committed to,what’s important to them and the type of actions they want to take in their lives. That’s something I hope happens.”
Alicia Henry: Witnessing is on view at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia from March 12-May 22, 2022.
This article appears in Mar 1-30, 2022.
