Marilyn Henrion

Artist Statement

Born in Brooklyn NY in 1932, I graduated from Cooper Union in 1952 and lived in Greenwich Village all of my adult life until my move to Texas in 2022 at age 90. My aesthetic vision had always been deeply rooted in the urban geometry of my surroundings, whether at home or in my travels. This holds true from the earlier geometric abstractions to the more recent mixed media works. The presence of the human hand upon the landscape expresses our eternal yearning for immortality, evidence that says ;I was once here;. Subject and process are intertwined in the hand quilting, echoing the celebration of the human hand.
While, up until now, my focus was on architecture and other man-made structures,, my move to Texas has expanded my vision as I explore the co-mingling of man-made structures and nature. Much as Edward Hopper did in the 20th century, I synthesize and transform the “facts” of the material world to reflect my experience of a particular place. Whether abstract or representational, the works are composed of my digitally manipulated photographs, which are printed on fabric and meticulously hand-quilted to animate the surface and to reinforce the presence of the human hand.

About her work, art critic Ed McCormack writes:;This major American artist is one of precious few who have taken the textile medium far beyond its brief popularity during the feminist era and continued to broaden its possibilities and elevate it to the highest level of contemporary mainstream aesthetics.