Mike Henderson

Mike Henderson (born 1943) is an American painter, filmmaker, musician, and professor emeritus. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area since the mid-1960s, his work spans figurative painting, abstraction, experimental film, and blues music. Henderson is recognized for his early politically charged figurative works addressing social justice and Black life, as well as his later large-scale abstract paintings. He is represented by Haines Gallery, San Francisco. His arrival in San Francisco coincided with a period of significant social and political change, which influenced his early work. Henderson's The Scream, a monumental 10-foot x 12-foot painting depicting three disembodied and conjoined skull-like heads screaming with wide-open, blood-red mouths was born out of his own struggles with the racial injustice in San Francisco to, in his own words, "release a scream that was inside of me". A significant portion of Henderson's output from these first two decades was damaged in a studio fire in 1985.

Shift to abstraction Following the studio fire and his earlier figurative period, Henderson increasingly turned towards abstraction. His later paintings are often large-scale and characterized by highly gestural brushwork, complex textures achieved through layering and scraping, and a focus on color, space, and improvisation. This abstract style demonstrates connections to postwar Abstract expressionism while incorporating Henderson's personal experiences and musicality. A notable series from the early 1990s, known as "The Black Paintings," explored a darker palette of blacks, grays, and deep blues, aiming to "express sound within the space of the canvas."

Film career Alongside his painting, Henderson produced a body of experimental short films, primarily between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s. Often shot on 16mm film, these works mirrored the political and social concerns of his early paintings, sometimes employing humor and surrealism. and has performed alongside Albert King, Albert Collins, Bo Diddley, James Cotton, and Lightnin’ Hopkins. His interest in music, particularly blues and improvisation, is often cited as an influence on his abstract painting practice and has released three albums on the Pathway label.

Teaching career Henderson served as a professor of art at the University of California, Davis for over four decades, joining the faculty around 1970,

Style and themes Henderson's oeuvre encompasses politically charged figuration, surrealism, Afrofuturism, and gestural abstraction. Common threads include an engagement with Black experience in America, explorations of social justice, and an improvisational approach potentially linked to his musical background. His abstract work focuses on the formal qualities of paint, texture, color, and space.

Filmography

Exhibitions and collections Henderson's work has been exhibited widely in solo and group shows since the 1960s. Key exhibitions include:

Mike Henderson: Before the Fire, 1965–1985 (2023), his first major museum retrospective, at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, UC Davis. The Black Paintings (2020) at Haines Gallery, San Francisco. Inclusion in Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963–1983, shown at the de Young Museum, San Francisco (2019–2020) and other venues.

His work is held in the permanent collections of numerous museums, including:

Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (de Young Museum) Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, UC Davis Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York Oakland Museum of California Phoenix Art Museum San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) Studio Museum in Harlem, New York Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Awards and recognition Henderson has received several awards, including:

Guggenheim Fellowship (1973) National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Artist Grants (1978, 1989) Artadia San Francisco Award (2019) Margrit Mondavi Arts Medallion (2022)