Nell Painter
Nell Painter (formerly known as Nell Irvin Painter) is a visual artist and historian born in Houston, Texas, and based in Newark, New Jersey. The artist states: “My work carries discursive as well as visual meaning, (...) I reconfigure the past and revision myself through self-portraits. After a life of historical truth and political engagement with American society, my artwork represents freedom. Including the freedom to be totally self-centered.”
Painter received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers, and a Master of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design. She also has a Ph.D. in American history from Harvard University and a Bachelor in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of “Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over” (2018) and “The History of White People” (2010). Her recent exhibitions include the ones at the Harvard University, WBGO Gallery, San Angelo Museum of Fine Art, and the Brooklyn Historical Society among others. Her work is part of several collections, including the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Newark Museum, National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Yale University.
About her work in WOV II:
Painter contributed a triptych, celebrating her artist friend, Adrienne Wheeler, combining self-portraits and texts, such as “I sit in my corner and make art to express my gratitude I knit socks for Adrienne”.
“I Knit Socks for Adrienne” (2020) is, in the words of the artist, “the most personally declarative piece of art I have ever made”, revealing herself as a “crafts-woman”, a knitter. Knitting was an outlet for Nell Painter, a way of composing herself and connecting with family and friends in the context of the pandemic, economic regression, and the Black Lives Matter movement. The gesture of knitting socks for her friends is also a beautiful expression of sisterhood.
You can learn more about her at nellpainter.com