During her life, multi-media artist Alicia Henry’s work was the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions at institutions, including a solo touring show in Canada at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (2022), Kamloops Art Gallery (2022), Southern Alberta Art Gallery (2019), and The Power Plant (2019); the Atlanta Biennial (2019); the Havana Biennial (2019); Cheekwood Museum, Nashville (2018-2019); the Frist Art Museum, Nashville (2016); the Hunter Museum of American Art (2014); the Tennessee State Museum, Nashville (2014); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia (2013); the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (2013); the South Bend Museum of Art, South Bend, Indiana (2004); the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (2002); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City (1997); and the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (1996).
The gallery is working with the Alicia Henry Collection to on long-term, scholarship-driven stewardship of the artist’s body of work in support of the Alicia Henry Scholarship Fund at Fisk University and other legacy building projects.
Alicia Henry was loved and admired not only for her talents as an artist, but also for the kind, warm, gentle and friendly spirit that she personified. ZieherSmith is deeply committed to broadening the understanding and awareness of the artist and her oeuvre through our collaboration with the Alicia Henry Collection.
Alicia Henry
1966-2024
Alicia Henry
Untitled (The Walk figure) , 2008
Acrylic, thread, and fabric
72 x 79 in (182.9 x 200.7 cm)
Work by Alicia Henry as exhibiited in the group exhibition
In Her Place, 2026, Frist Art Museum, Nashville
Alicia Henry
Untitled, 1999
Acrylic, gouache, thread on paper
88.5 x 59.75 in
Collection of Fisk University Art Galleries, Nashville
Alicia Henry
Untitled (cluster), 2019
Mixed media
96 x 120 in.
Installation image from Alicia Henry: Witnessing, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 2022
Alicia Henry
Untitled, 2018-2020
Acrylic dye, cotton, linen, thread, paper, and dye
9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in (24.1 x 19.1 cm)
Collection of North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Rapids
Alicia Henry
Untitled (Figure), 2022-2024
Acrylic, felt, cotton, dye, and thread
120 x 36 in (304.8 x 91.4 cm)
Collection of Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville
Alicia Henry
Untitled, 2017
Mixed media, acrylic on felt, thread, and fabric
23 x 27 in (58.4 x 68.6 cm)
Collection of the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
Alicia Henry
Untitled (fragments), 2019
Acrylic, graphite, pastel, colored pencil, crayon, felt, thread, yarn, paper, and cotton in 300 parts
103 x 284 in. approx.
Installation image Alicia Henry: Witnessing, Power Plant Toronto, 2019
Alicia Henry
Untitled (Couple), 2008
Canvas, acrylic, and thread in two parts
40 3/8 x 25 1/8 in. and 38 3/8 x 36 3/8 in.
Collection of Cheekwood Museum, Nashville
Alicia Henry
Untitled (Brown Cloth Face), Early 21st Century
Mixed media and fabric
27 x 21 in (68.6 x 53.3 cm)
Collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
ALICIA HENRY CV
1966 Born in Chicago, IL
2024 Died in Nashville, TN
EDUCATION
MFA, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
BFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
SELECTED SOLO AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2024 Alicia Henry + Fahamu Pecou, Grisham Gallery, Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville AL
2023 Alicia, Fisk University Galleries, Nashville, TN
Alicia Henry: Autonomous, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown MA
Alicia Henry – In the Viewing Room, TrepanierBaer, Calgary, Alberta, CA
2022 Witnessing, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, CA
Witnessing, Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, British Columbia, CA
2021 Repercussions II, Liliana Bloch Gallery, Dallas, TX
To Whom It May Concern, Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK
Zeitgeist, Nashville, Tennessee, USA (2020–2021)
Recent Works, Herron Galleries, Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis, IN
2020 Alicia Henry: 2012-2020, TrepanierBaer, Calgary, Alberta, CA
2019 Witnessing, The Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge,, Alberta, CA
Witnessing, The Power Plant, Toronto, Ontario, CA
2017 Witness, Liliana Bloch Gallery, Dallas, Texas, USA
Home, Giertz Gallery, Parkland College, Champaign, Illinois, USA
2012 There Was a House, University of the South, Sewanee, TN
2009 The Walk, University of Tennessee Downtown Gallery, Knoxville, TN
2005 Alicia Henry, Northeastern Illinois University Gallery, Chicago, IlL
2004 Alicia Henry, Rhodes College, Clough-Hanson Gallery, Memphis, TN
2003 Alicia Henry, South Bend Regional Art Center, South Bend, IN
Black and Blue, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN
2000 Mostly, One Good Thing, New York, NY
Alicia Henry: Untitled, Cheekwood Museum, Nashville, TN
1996 Objects, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
1993 Figures, Universal Fine Objects Gallery, Provincetown, MA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 In Her Place, Frist Museum of Art, Nashville, TN
2025 A Conscious Relation: Body/Mind/Movement, Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK
Celebrating the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC
2024 Makeshift Memorials, Small Revolutions, Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, TX
Land, Place, Identity: Selections from the Collection, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA
Analogous: Alicia Henry, Luanne Martineau, Evan Penny, TrepanierBaer, Calgary, Alberta, CA
Alicia Henry: (Unknowing), Christian-Green Gallery, Art Galleries at Black Studies, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
2023 Kudzu Soliloquy, Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, A;
2022 Fuel and Lumber: 8, Laney Contemporary, Savannah, GA
Summer Stories, David Lusk Gallery, Nashville, TN
Piecework: Resistance and Healing in Contemporary Textile Art, Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, MA
The Pattern of Patience, Marc Straus, New York, NY
2021 Piecework: Resistance and Healing in Contemporary Textile Art, Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, MA
The Black Index (traveling exhibition), Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, CA University Art Galleries, University of California, Irvine, CA; Art Galleries at Black Studies, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX; Bertha & Karl Leubsdorf Gallery, Hunter College, New York, NY
The Pattern of Patience, Marc Straus, New York, NY
2019 Intermittent Rivers, 13th Havana Biennial, Matanzas, Cuba (project of María Magdalena Campos-Pons)
A Thousand Tomorrows, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta Biennial, Atlanta, GA
Artists in Residence 1888–Present: Fisk Faculty and Alumni Show, Carl Van Vechten Gallery, Fisk University Galleries, Nashville, TeN
2018 20 Collaborations in Book Art III, Nashville Public Library, Main Gallery, Nashville, TN
Continuity of Context: Five Artists in Dialogue with Cheekwood's Collection, Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, TN
Say It Loud, 22 London Gallery, Asheville, NX
2016 Phantom Bodies: The Human Aura of Art, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN
20 Collaborations in Book Art II, Nashville Public Library, Main Gallery, Nashville, TN
2014 The Hunter Museum Invitational III, Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN
20 Collaborations in Book Art I, Nashville Public Library, Main Gallery, Nashville, TN
Real Cowgirls and Real Cowboys, Urban Individualist Studio, Richmond, VA
Creative Legacy: African Americans in Tennessee, Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN
2013 Tapping the Third Realm, Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, and Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA
TABOO, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, AUS
The Female Gaze: Women Artists Making Their World, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2012 Fragile, Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN
2011 Angels Without Wings, Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2008 Fisk University Faculty Exhibition, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN
2007 Utility Trances, Flood Gallery Fine Art Center, Asheville, NC
Former Fellows Exhibition, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA
A Short Story, Watkins School of Art, Nashville, TN
Mask, University of the South, Sewanee, TN
2006 Outside-In, Inside-Out, 301 Space, Mobile, AL
All About Women, Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago, IL
2003 Art of Tennessee, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN
Material Presence, McLean County Arts Center, Bloomington, IL
Fisk Faculty Exhibition, Carl Van Vechten Gallery, Nashville, TN
Remembrance, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL
2002 Paper Cuts, Islip Art Museum, Islip, NY
Flying Solo, Nashville International Airport, Nashville, TN
Totally Art Centric 13, Bethlehem Centers of Nashville, Nashville, TN
The Carpenter Jr. Collection: Fifty Years of Supporting the New, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT
What a Doll, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA
Reactions, Exit Art, New York, NY
2000 Four Corners, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Switchyard, Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN
From the Heart, Education Alliance Gallery, New York, NY
Family Portrait, Art in General, New York, NY
1999 From Africa to America, William King Regional Arts Center, Abingdon, VA
N4Art, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN
The Stroke, Exit Art / First World, New York, NY
Metaphor, Henry Street Settlement, Abrons Arts Center, New York, NY
1997 A Passion for Pictures, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1996 Charles H. Carpenter: Odyssey of a Collector, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
1992 Other Politics, Higgins Art Gallery, Cape Cod Community College, West Barnstable, MA
1991 On Target, Zephyr Gallery, Louisville, KY
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Nicole Hester, “‘In Her Place': A Curated Exploration of Nashville's Contemporary Women Artists," The Tennessean, February 5, 2026
Alex Greenberger, "Alicia Henry, Artist Whose Modest Works Asked Big Questions About Visibility, Dies at 58," ARTnews, October 21, 2024
"Alicia Henry (1966–2024)," Artforum, October 22, 2024
Abraham Storer, "Heads of Strength and Autonomy," The Provincetown Independent, May 31, 2023
Jasmine Amussen, "Alicia Henry: 2020 and 2021 at Zeitgeist," BURNAWAY, March 27, 2021
Magdalyn Asimakis, "Alicia Henry" (Critics' Picks, "Witnessing" at the Power Plant), Artforum, April 13, 2019
Erica Ciccarone, "The Stitch of Life and Death: Alicia Henry at Zeitgeist, Nashville," BURNAWAY, January 15, 2016
FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS, RESIDENCIES
2017 Crossroads Public Art Resident, WSW Mural Project
2016 1858 Prize for Contemporary Art
2014 Joan Mitchell Foundation
2002 Greece Residency (Spring)
2000–2001 Guggenheim Fellowship
2000 Art in General Residency (Fall)
1993 MacDowell Art Colony (Summer)
1991–1993 Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown (Fellowship)
1990 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
1989–1991 Ford Foundation Fellowship
1986–1988 The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Merit Award)
COLLECTIONS
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Cheekwood Museum, Nashville, TN
Fisk University Art Galleries Nashville, TN
Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL
Music Center Center, Nashville, TN
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA
University of Texas, Austin, TX