Installation view of Richard Mayhew’s “Natural Order.” Courtesy of Venus Over Manhattan.
Venus Over Manhattan inaugurates its latest gallery by shining a light on 20 oft-overlooked paintings and works on paper by 99-year-old Afro-Native American artist Richard Mayhew. The contemporary of artists like Norman Lewis, Alma Thomas, and Romare Bearden calls these “mindscapes” or “moodscapes.”
Infusing fauvist palettes with low-fi realism, this collection of 26 works marks Mayhew’s gallery debut, despite the Spiral group founder’s renown, drawing on his multicultural identity to harmonize nature and memory with elements of Cherokee, Lumbee, and Shinnecock spirituality
