Howardena Pindell was born in Philadelphia in 1943, and studied painting at Boston University and Yale University. She has taught at State University of New York, Stony Brook since 1979 and she lives and works in New York city. Pindell has exhibited extensively throughout her career. Notable solo-exhibitions include: Spelman College (1971, Atlanta), A.I.R. Gallery (1973, 1983, New York), Just Above Midtown (1977, New York), Lerner-Heller Gallery (1980, 1981, New York), The Studio Museum in Harlem (1986, New York), the Wadsworth Atheneum (1989, Hartford), Cyrus Gallery (1989, New York), and G.R. N’Namdi Gallery (1992, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2006, Chicago, Detroit, and New York).
Known for her textured, hole-punch canvases, Howardena Pindell has been a unique and important voice in the field of abstract painting since the 1960s. In the 1970s, Pindell began creating layered, rough surfaces out of tiny paper dots cut with a standard hole puncher, which she collaged onto canvases with layers of acrylic, sequins, glitter, and powder, experimenting with color, surface, and texture. In addition to working rigorously as an artist, from 1967-1979, Pindell worked as a curator in the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books at the Museum of Modern Art.
Pindell’s work is in the permanent collections of major museums internationally, including: the Brooklyn Museum; the Corcoran Gallery of Art; the Fogg Museum, Harvard University; the High Museum of Art; the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the National Gallery of Art; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; The Studio Museum in Harlem; the Smithsonian Museum of American Art; the Wadsworth Atheneum; the Walker Art Center; the Whitney Museum of American Art; and the Yale University Art Gallery.
