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Unlike the "upstart," emerging, energizing artist as William Powhida, Mike Henderson has been pursuing a singular vision for more than thirty years. In fact, this is his eighth exhibition at Haines Gallery.

Known primarily for his strongly gestured and deeply textural oil painting, his reverence for Abstract Expressionism and intimate relationship to improvisation nets painting that energizes the eye, and soothes the soul.

One of the very few African-American Abstract-Expressionists painters, Henderson has been pursuing oil painting as an expressive medium since the late 1960's. A San Francisco Art Institute Alumnus, he has held a prominent place in the second generation of Bay Area Abstract painters. Reflecting the challenges of the urban landscape that has surrounded him, and as such has continued an exploration of surface tension, color fields and geometric abstraction passed down at the SFAI by founding fathers Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt and Clyfford Still.

One of the most unique aspects of Henderson's painting is that their inspiration comes from his lifelong exploration of the blues. A professional musician as well, his paintings are infused with rhythm that becomes musical compositions of texture and form, a physical manifestation of interwoven melodies. The spontaneity and improvisational markmakings that shimmer and quake are unmistakably a part of his sense of "jam." They can almost be heard as they are seen. Mike

Henderson received the distinguished Guggenheim fellowship in 1973 and is a two-time recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Award. Most recently he was a recipient of the 2003/2004 Flintridge Foundation Awards for Visual Artists. His work has been exhibited in important institutions including: the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Crocker Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

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http://hainesgallery.com