Howardena Pindell
Howardena Pindell (born April 4, 1943) is an American painter and mixed media artist. Her artwork is political, personal and a metaphorical processes of destruction/reconstruction while exploring issues like racism, trauma and memory. Pindell is best known for her abstract paintings made of hole punched scrap pieces of paper, collages, writings and video works. She received her BFA at Brown University and MA at Yale. She was curator at the Museum of Modern Art and co-founded A.I.R. Gallery in the 1970s which was the was the first artist-directed gallery for women artists in the United States. She has been teaching at Stony Brook University in New York since stepping down from MoMA in 1979. Pindell continues to be an active voice and critic of systemic racism in the art world and is widely exhibited, receiving numerous awards, honorary doctorates and continues to create new work today with a career that expands over that last 5 decades.
Workshop
Let’s create collage paintings inspired by Howardena Pindell’s process!
Start with a large piece of paper and cut any shape to work on as your base
Use your scrap paper (any colors) and your hole punch or scissors to create lots of
circles and paper shapes to layer with
With your glue and paint collage your circles and/or shapes together on to your base
Get creative and enjoy the process of adding and subtracting, building, layering and
making an abstract artwork inspired by Howardena Pindell!
Materials
Large Paper
Scrap paper
Hole punch or scissors
Glue
Paint
Follow Up
What shape did you choose as the base of your artwork?
Why? Did you enjoy making shapes and punching holes?
How did you begin to glue and collage the shapes to your artwork?
Was there a certain place you began (middle, center, corner)?
Did you end up removing and adding things? Why? How?
What did you think of the overall process?
Was the process of making your artwork as exciting as your finished an artwork?