ELL ART EXCHANGE is proud to present
LIFE IN PAINT Henrietta Mantooth

ARTIST: Henrietta Mantooth
DATE: February 26 - April 10, 2005
OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, February 26, 4 - 6 P.M.
LOCATION: Kleinert/James Arts Center , 34 Tinker Street, Woodstock
CONTACT: Curator Bette Korman 845.657.9714
MEET&TALK with the Artist: March 5, 4-6pm

Woodstock, New York The Woodstock Guild proudly presents a special exhibition of paintings by renowned artist Henrietta Mantooth at the Kleinert/James Art Gallery, 34 Tinker Street , Woodstock New York. The exhibition opens Saturday, February 26, with an opening reception from 4 -6 P.M. and runs through April 10th. Gallery hours are Friday to Sunday, from 12:00- 5:00 P.M.

"A Life in Paint" is a retrospective of 30 years of art by Henrietta Mantooth. It is a collection of 20 paintings, picture poems and installations that explore personal and political themes through passionate permutations of color, texture and light.

Ms. Mantooth, who is at the height of her creative power, describes her paintings as "witnessing" people (based on stories and photos that appear in newspapers and on television) who are nameless -- refugees, rebels, farmers, men and women who tend and defend their land and the homeless men, women and children who are roaming the world, searching for safety and a way to make a living.

Her work is inspired by her raw upbringing in Missouri and her extensive travels in Latin America. From her experience in the Kansas City Streets, reflecting jazz, corrupt politics and racial inequality, to the Missouri farmland where her mother's people raised grapes and apples and where her sister and herself fashioned toy dolls from mud and sticks , hollyhock, corn husks and corn silk, concocting their paints from mulberries , beets, boiled onions grasses and laundry bluing, and to the Gypsies parked in their live-in wagons along the oiled road in front of their house, Ms. Mantooth extracted the essence of each of these vivid experiences and projected them onto her painted and written canvases.

Likewise, her rustic pilgrimages on oxcart, in the back of trucks and on horses and mules to observe and participate in Ancient Afro -American and Indian rituals in Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, and also in Peru, Columbia, Argentina , Bolivia and Guatemala gave intensity and vision to her artistic endeavors. Traveling to local indigenous ceremonies, ancient ruins, Indian markets and settlements and many out of the way places for 18 years made her acutely aware of poverty and prejudice, of dust wrecked land, lack of education and stunted lives.

The forces that synthesized all these deeply felt experiences were her humanistic compassion and her love of PAINT. "I feel my real subject matter is paint, pushing it to its momentary limits to give form to the passion of visible and invisible life. The surprises of this process are what hold me to the work."

We can see this evidenced in the diverse painting styles featured in the exhibition "A LIFE IN PAINT".LOCKEY a 4ft by 8ft painting of her mother, NEST, a 10 ft. by 15 ft. painted and written installation and BRAZILIAN FAMILY a 7ft by 12ft acrylic , pastel and crayon painting are multiple reflections on Ms. Mantooth's identification with the family as a binding structure in life. MEXICO, a grid of 30 fluid acrylic 12" by 12"graffiti squares, MIGRATION, a column of 20" by 30" acrylic on muslin cloth rectangles and the ZAPATISTAS, a section from a 8' by 24 ft. mural all explore the disasters of war-the growing stream of migrants and displaced peoples who roam like herds of goats over the country side, orphaned by war, famine and disease, scavenging and searching for someone they know, given guns to either fight for their rights or pulled into armies for further massacres. And THE PIANO LESSON, a painted acrylic styrofoam piano for the set of August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson", and other set design photos document Ms. Mantooth's prolific career in theater as a set designer and performer. A video of Ms. Mantooth's career in art and theater will on display created by Maureen Bisilliat.

Ms. Mantooth, an internationally acclaimed artist, has her work represented in the Queens Museum of Art, The American Academy of Arts an Letters in N.Y.C., The Heard Museum in Phoenix ,Arizona, The Museum of Modern Art in Brazil and in numerous galleries and collections across America. She has received awards and fellowships from the Mc Dowell Colony, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Santa Fe Institute, The New York Foundation for the Arts and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation among others.