Howardena Pindell

Howardena Pindell (born 1943) is an African-American post-war artist and professor of art. She is best known for her painting and video art, as well as her involvement in the Black Arts Movement, which was part of the Black Artistic Renaissance in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. Pindell's work heavily focuses on themes of identity, race, and representation, often employing abstract expressionist painting styles and found objects. Pindell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and attended Tyler School of Art, where she earned a BFA (1965) and a MFA (1967). She then became an instructor at the City College of New York, and went on to become the first African-American woman to be hired as a professor of art by the College Art Association. Pindell has held solo exhibitions across the United States and internationally, and her work has been included in group exhibitions at institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art. In 2011, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.