The Project is pleased to present Barkley L. Hendricks’ second solo exhibiton at the gallery, a series of photographs dating from the late 1970’s to 1996. Though he has always worked across mediums and styles (including landscape and portraiture), this is Hendricks’ first exhibition dedicated to his photographs. Born in Philadelphia in 1945, Hendricks enrolled at the renowned Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts before attending Yale in 1970. During these formative years, Hendricks began his admired portrait paintings of African-American individuals. But his work also extended beyond the medium of painting to photography, where Barkley continued to explore the figure and posture, as well as issues of identity that were particularly influenced by his travels abroad. The title of the exhibition, Thank You Mr. John, is a gesture of gratitude to a neighbor that gave Hendricks his first camera while he was a young man. Since then, Hendricks has always kept a camera by his side, capturing individuals and moments along the way.

Whether taken during a visit abroad or at his studio, the photographs candidly reveal Hendricks’ fascination, curiosity and engagement with the world around him. In The Twins and Swimming Pool Attendant, taken almost ten years apart in Ghana and Nigeria, respectively, Hendricks beautifully captures a seemingly timeless moment. Like his paintings, these photographs reveal his interest in the subject’s posture, attire and mannerism. Also included in the exhibiton are Gas Land and Wall Collage, photographs of a desolate landscape and peeling street posters that are documents of urban life in transition.

In Ray Charles and the Raylettes, a photograph taken in Connecticut in 1992, Hendricks immortalizes the jazz legend. Charles, who is bathed in stage light and laughing hysterically, appears like the vivacious performer that we remember. For Hendricks, staying connected to the music that first inspired his creative ventures has been an important source of inspiration in his work- Hendricks became a jazz enthusiast at a young age and actively participated in the local music scence. An avid collector of vinyl records and other music memorabilia, Hendricks’ traces his own musical maturation back to Ray Charles.

Barkley L. Hendricks: The Birth of the Cool, Hendricks’ first retrospective exhibition of paintings is currently on view at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in North Carolina. It will also travel to the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Santa Monica Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston.

Selected group exhibitions include Nina in Position, Artists Space, New York, Connecticut Contemporary, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Back to Black – Art, Cinema and the Racial Imaginary, The Whitechapel Gallery, London, Day for Night: The 2006 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, REPRESENT: Selections From the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York State Museum, Albany, Tête à Tête, Greenberg Van Doren, New York, The Whole World is Rotten: Free Radicals and the Gold Coast Slave Castles of Paa Joe, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, African Queen, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, and Black Male at the Whitney Museum of America Art.