Catamount Arts is pleased to announce the opening of Winfred Rembert: An Artful Response, an exhibition of prints and paintings on tooled and carved leather by self-taught African American artist Winfred Rembert. Show will open on Sunday, January 31 with a 1:30 pm screening of the documentary film Winfred Rembert: All Me, followed by a reception in the gallery where refreshments will be served. The screening and reception are free and open to the public. All are welcome to attend.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION: Catamount Arts is pleased to present the work of Winfred Rembert, a self-taught artist whose colorful biography is interpreted through dynamic narrative paintings on carved and tooled leather, as well as in prints done in collaboration with students at the Master Print Studio at the Massachusetts College of Fine Arts. Captivating and turbulent imagery details Rembert’s experience of growing up in the rural South during segregation and his active involvement in the Civil Rights movement and time spent on a chain gang as a result. Rembert’s lyrical use of form and color, meticulous geometric patterning, and distinctive use of material read like unsettling yet mesmerizing history paintings.
ABOUT THE ARTIST: A native of Cuthbert, Georgia, Winfred Rembert spent his childhood as a fieldworker and was active in the Civil Rights movement led by Martin Luther King. Brought up by his great-aunt, Rembert’s work looks back to his youth segregation. Despite the grim working conditions (not to mention a near-lynching and years his years spent on a prison chain gang), Rembert focuses on the joyous aspects of black life in the 1950s South — the strong family and community bonds, the cultural vibrancy, and the many colorful characters that lifted the spirits of those who had little choice but to labor in the region’s cotton fields. The artist, who is self-taught, lives and works in New Haven, Connecticut with paintings in both public and private collections. His solo exhibition opened at the Yale University Art Gallery in 2000, followed by a traveling retrospective organized by the Hudson River Museum. In 2011 he was subject of the documentary film All Me: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert, which has won numerous film festival awards.
FREE SCREENINGS: During the course the exhibition, Catamount Arts will present free screenings of the documentary All Me: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert at 7 pm on Tuesday evenings, February 9, 16, 23 and March 1. Screenings of the film are free an open to the public. All are welcome to attend.