August 2001
Edward Henderson
(570) 251-2530
Edward received a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts. He worked as a fine arts printer at Gemini in Los Angeles and returned to his New York roots in 1978, becoming an assistant to Jasper Johns. He is the recipient of a National Endowment Grant and Guggenheim Fellowship.
Statement:
I have never considered art making to be an urban activity and for the past twenty-five years, I have maintained a studio in my home. I am in constant contact with people, who nurture the artistic impulse, and are convinced as I am that creativity and imagination are essential to our lives. It is no coincidence, that the queen of the arts has been and still is two-dimensional imagery (film, being the biggest game in town, is king). Today more than ever it's characteristics of being archaic and contemporary at the same moment clarify inevitable emotions. In pictures, pictorial meaning and human meaning appear merged. The subject matter of what is indicated is seen, what is felt is perceived. I am an artist in search of difficulty rather than in its grip, to be possessed by the vision of possibilities in pursuit of the marvelous and to be a galvanized by the what-ifs.
Art is one of the few things that bestow deep meanings to the human condition. It does so for the artist and one hopes for those who can share the work. This is part of my strategy to make us reconsider our world of visual imagery and hopefully force us to relinquish our comfortable recollections of the familiar. I tinker with these visual explanations, trying to give them purpose, direction, and meaning yet knowing this constant probing into the unknown, does not have a sequence toward a perfect solution. My work is successful when no explanation can satisfy the viewer's curiosity.
