BIOGRAPHY
Winfred Rembert (1945-2021) was raised by a great-aunt in Cuthbert, Georgia. He began working in the cotton fields at a young age and received limited education. The circumstances of his upbringing as a Black American in the Jim Crow South propelled Rembert into the fight for equality through the Civil Rights Movement, which led to his unjust incarceration. His unique oeuvre is executed in carved, tooled, and painted leather, a craft the artist learned from a fellow inmate during seven years of hard labor in the Georgia prison system. Rembert’s deeply personal artworks foreground truths about the aftermath of slavery and the persistence of racial injustice in America, while also celebrating the people and places of the Black communities in which he lived. Winfred Rembert’s work is represented in the permanent collections of more than twenty North American Museums. Rembert’s art was the focus of major exhibitions at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL in 2013; the Flint Institute of the Arts, Flint, MI in 2013; the Citadelle Art Foundation, Canadian, TX in 2012; the Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY in 2012; the Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC in 2012; the Adelson Galleries, New York in 2010, and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT in 2000.
1945
Born in Americus, Georgia, USA
2021
Died in New Haven, Connecticut, USA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Winfred Rembert: All of Me, Hauser & Wirth in collaboration with Fort Gansevoort, New York, NY.
2022
Winfred Rembert: Memory is Alive, James Barron Art, Kent, CT.
2021
Winfred Rembert: 1945-2021, Fort Gansevoort, New York, NY.
2020
Winfred Rembert: I Want to Tell the Truth, James Barron Art, Kent, CT.
2018-19
Southern Roots: The Paintings of Winfred Rembert, The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH.
2017
Southern Roots: The Paintings of Winfred Rembert, The Muskegon Museum of Arts, Muskegon, MI.
2016
Winfred Rembert: An Artful Response, Catamount Arts, St. Johnsbury, VT.
2015
Winfred Rembert: Amazing Grace, New Haven Museum, New Haven, CT.
2013-14
Winfred Rembert: Beyond Memory, Danforth Art Museum, Framingham, MA.
2013
Winfred Rembert: Amazing Grace, Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI and Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL.
Winfred Rembert, Tillou Fine Art, New York, NY.
2012
Winfred Rembert: Amazing Grace, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY, Greenville County Museum of Art, SC, and The Citadelle Art Foundation, Canadian, TX.
2010
Winfred Rembert: Memories of My Youth, Adelson Galleries, NY.
1998
York Square Cinema, CT.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Unruly Navigations, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA.
WRONGED, Galerie Marguo, Paris, FR.
2023
Faces of Resilience, Mason Exhibitions, Fairfax, VA.
“Pictures Girls Make”: Portraitures, Blum&Poe, Los Angeles, CA.
Change Agents: Women Collectors Shaping the Art World, Southampton Arts Center, Southampton, NY.
On View, Spanierman Modern, New York, NY.
Petrucci Family Foundation Collection Tibeca Showcase, 371 Broadway, New York, NY.
The Interior Life: Recent Acquisitions, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
2022-2023
Order / Reorder: Experiments with Collections, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY.
2022
Dreams & Memories, Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT.
Start Talking: Contemporary Art from the Collection of Hedy Fischer and Randy Shull, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC.
Mirror Mirror, 22 London, Asheville, NC.
2021-22
Winfred & Mitchell Rembert: Father & Son, Adelson Galleries, New York, NY.
Soul Deep: African-American Masterworks, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC.
2020-22
Landscape Art & Virtual Travel: Highlights from the Collections of the HRM & Art Bridges, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY.
2020-21
Protest and Promise: Selections from the Contemporary Art Collection 1963-2019,Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT.
2020
Collection Spotlight: Derrick Adams Selects, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY.
2015
Fall Exhibition: Five Artists, Jacob Collins, Federico Uribe, Winfred Rembert, Andrew Stevovich, Jamie Wyeth, Adelson Galleries, NY.
2002
Willie Birch and Winfred Rembert (African American Series Exhibition 1), Kresge Gallery, Ramapo College, Mahwah, NJ.
2000
Southern Exposure: Works by Winfred Rembert and Hale Woodruff, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.
GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS
2022
Pulitzer Prize winner for Biography/Autobiography
Winner of the Art in Literature: The Mary Lynn Kotz Award
2016
United States Artists Barr Fellowship
2015
Honored by Equal Justice Initiative
2011
“Winfred Rembert Day” declared in Cuthbert, Georgia
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR
Flint Institute of the Arts, Flint, MI
Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT
Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Glenstone, Potomac, MD
Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
Legacy Museum, Equal Justice Initiative, Montgomery, AL
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, CA
Menil Collection, Houston, TX
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
Muskegon Museum of Art, Youngstown, OH
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Richard M. Ross Museum of Art, Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH
Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.
Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2023
Ayaka, Cassey, “Sotheby’s unveils visions of America: A glimpse inside the heart of American history”, Flaunt, December 4.
Griffin Jonathan, “´Pictures Girls Make´: A Genre of Appearance”, ArtReview, November 15.
Maximilíano Durón, “What the World’s Top Collectors Bought in 2023, From Art Historical Treasures to the Freshest Wet Paint”, ARTnews, October 17.
Armstrong, Annie. “At Independent 20th Century, a Rewarding Roster of Self-Taught Artists Share the Spotlight With a Conceptual Coffee Klatch“ , Artnet, September 7.
Scott, Chad. “Summer in The Hamptons Can Mean Art, Too“. Forbes, July 14.
Valentine, Victoria. “Winfred Rembert’s Painful Memories of Jim Crow South Produced Powerful Images: ‘Nobody Else Was Putting Their History or Their Life Story on Leather’ ”, Culture Type, April 22.
Schwendener, Martha. “What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries in March“, The New York Times, March, 30.
Michael, Taylor. “At the Outsider Art Fair, Passion Trumps Prestige”, Hyperallergic, March 3.
Woodward, Daisy. “Spring Has Sprung: Brilliant Things To Do in March”, Another, March 3.
Cerio, Gregory. “In the Galleries: Winfred Rembert”, Antiques, February 27.
Smith, Steve. “Explore a Black artist’s visions of Southern life,” Gothamist, February 24.
“Robert Colescott’s ‘Miss Liberty’ Freed from Private Collection,” Ocula Magazine, February 22.
“African American Works Take Center Stage At Brunk“, Antiques And The Arts Weekly, February 21.
“A More Inclusive Americana Week At Christie’s Sees Totals Near $16 Million“, Antiques And The Arts Weekly, February 7.
Gleadell, Colin. “The artist beaten, imprisoned – the fêted at Christie’s”, The Telegraph, February 7.
Valentine, Victoria. “Culture Type: Black Art History, Here’s What Happened in January 2023“, Culture Type, February 7.
“The Back Room: Old Masters, New Life?”, Artnet News, February 3.
Durón, Maximilíano. “Hauser & Wirth and Fort Gansevoort to Co-Represent Winfred Rembert Estate”, ARTnews, January 19.
2022
Bernier, Celeste-Marie. Battleground: African American art, 1985-2015, Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2022.
Dorsey, Kristina. “Artworks reflecting dreams and memories are focus of show at Florence Griswold Museum“ , The Day, December 4.
Testa, Jessica. "Is She the New Queen of Los Angeles?", The New York Times, October 27.
Grant, Cat. “MIA announces acquisitions that expand their American art collection“, Daily Planet, September 8.
Bass, Paul. “Time For A Winfred Rembert Museum?”, New Haven Independent, May 20.
Van Atten, Suzanne. “Book Notes: Georgia author wins posthumous Pulitzer Prize”, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 13.
Valentine, Victoria L. “Latest News in Black Art: Late Artist Winfred Rembert Wins Pulitzer, Barkley L. Hendricks and Wangechi Mutu Acquisitions, Plus Rome Prize Recipients & More”, Culture Type, May 13.
Bass, Paul. “Winfred Rembert Wins Posthumous Pulitzer”, New Haven Independent, May 11.
Craven, TinaMarie. “CT artist posthumously wins Pulitzer for memoir about Jim Crow South”, CT Insider, May 11.
“Late South Ga. author wins Pulitzer”, WALB News 10, May 11.
Italie, Hillel. “Joshua Cohen, the late Winfred Rembert win arts Pulitzers”, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, May 10.
Kraus, Joseph. “Prize-winning ‘Netanyahus’ author says it’s also about Trump”, The Seattle Times, May 10.
Bowker, Brittany. “Tufts philosopher Erin Kelly wins Pulitzer Prize for biography written with artist Winfred Rembert”, The Boston Globe, May 10.
Abrams, Amah-Rose. “Two Visual Artists, Winfred Rembert and Raven Chacon, Have Been Awarded Pulitzer Prizes for Biography and Music”, Artnet News, May 10.
“Pulitzer Prizes 2022: A Guide to the Winning Books and Finalists”, New York Times, May 9.
Greenberger, Alex. “Painter Winfred Rembert Posthumously Wins a Pulitzer for His Blistering Memoir of Racism and Incarceration”, ARTnews, May 9.
Gibson, Lydialyle. “The 2022 Pulitzer Prizes”, Harvard Magazine, May 9.
Bengal, Rebecca. “Coda For Winfred Rembert”, Oxford American, Spring.
Smith, Roberta. “What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries Right Now”, The New York Times, January 13.
Valentine, Victoria L. “Lives: A Look Back at Notable Artists and Designers Who Died in 2021, From Judson Powell to Winfred Rembert and Virgil Abloh”, Culture Type, January 7.
Davis, Ben. “From Immersive Everything to the Rise of Museum Unions, These 7 Trends Defined the Art World in 2021—and Will Shape the Year to Come”, Artnet, January 3.
2021
Lang, Joel. “Artist and lynching survivor Winfred Rembert shares his life story in a posthumous memoir”, Connecticut Magazine, December 31.
“Art World Luminaries Who Died in 2021”, ARTnews, December 30.
“In Memoriam 2021: Notables who Passed Away This Year”, Birmingham Times, December 30.
“In Memoriam: Remembering the Curators, Artists, Writers, and Dealers We Lost in 2021”, Artnet, December 29.
“New EJI Books Educate Readers About Injustice”, Black Star News, December 24.
Saltz, Jerry. “The Best New York Art Shows of 2021”, New York Magazine, December 17.
McNeil, Taylor. “A Life Survived in the Jim Crow South”, TuftsNow, December 14.
Cameron, Dan. “ArtSeen: Winfred Rembert: 1945-2021”, The Brooklyn Rail, December 9.
Collins, Ann C. “ArtSeen: Winfred Rembert: 1945-2021”, The Brooklyn Rail, December 9.
Taylor, Shakeia. “Ride Hell for Leather”, Victory Journal, Fall 2021.
Novick, Ilana. “Visceral Take on Jim Crow South in ‘Winfred Rembert, 1945-2021’”, Art & Object, November 30.
Greenberger, Alex. “Artist Jesse Krimes’s Struggle to Overcome Years in Prison Showcased in New Documentary", ARTnews, November 26.
Scott, Chadd. “Around New York”, Forbes, November 3.
Chambers, Christopher Hart. “Winfred Rembert: 1945-2021”, Dart International Magazine, October 12.
Urist, Jacoba. "Every American Should See Artist Winfred Rembert’s Pivotal Truths", Cultured Magazine, October 8.
Lebrun, Sylvan. "Exhibit opens honoring life and art of Winfred Rembert, long-time New Haven resident", Yale Daily News, October 8.
Mobilio, Albert. "The Escape Artist", Bookforum, Fall 2021.
Packard, Cassie. "Your Concise New York Art Guide for October 2021", Hyperallergic, September 30.
"Winfred Rembert, 1945–2021", Air Mail, September 28.
"Winfred Rembert: 1945-2021 at Fort Gansevoort in October, 2021", GothamToGo Art & Culture, September 21.
Tracey O'Shaughnessy. "Winfred Rembert: Memoir from Beyond the Grave", Republican American, August 28.
Greenberger, Alex. "Fort Gansevoort Now Represents the Estate of Winfred Rembert", ARTnews, May 24.
“An Artist on How He Survived the Chain Gang”, The New Yorker, May 3.
Rembert, Winfred, and Erin. I. Kelly. Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South, New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Riederer, Rachel. “Life after Lynching in ‘Ashes to Ashes’”, The New Yorker, January 13.
Seelye, Katharine Q. “Winfred Rembert, 75, Dies; Turned Painful Memories Into Art”, The New York Times, April 4.
2018
Dewey, Charlsie. “Artist Winfred Rembert Documents Black Life with his Paintings”, Grand Rapids Magazine, February 5.
2017
Clarke, Terence. “The Art of Winfred Rembert”, HUFFPOST, December 6.
2013
Heinlein, Sabine. “A Black Outsider Artist in a White Art World”, HYPERALLERGIC, February 19.
McQuaid, Cate. “What’s up at Boston-area art galleries”, The Boston Globe, February 12
2012
Oppenheimer, Ann. “The Indelible Images of Winfred Rembert”, Folk Art Society of America.
Schwendener, Martha. “Odyssey Through Jim Crow Era, Carved in Leather”, The New York Times, March 16.
Wolcott, James. “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Chain-Ganger”, Vanity Fair, February 5.
“Winfred Rembert: Amazing Grace Images on Leather at the Hudson River Museum”, ArtDaily.
Winfred Rembert: Amazing Grace, Yonkers, NY: Hudson River Museum.
2010
Karlins, N.F. “Folk Art Notebook”, Artnet. April 29.
2009
Hankin, Lisa Bush, editor. Winfred Rembert: Memories of My Youth, Adelson Galleries.
2000
King, Chris. “ART; A Lifetime Patiently Etched Into Leather”, The New York Times, December 24.
Kuehl, Claudia. “Beyond the Fringe; Outside Art, Whatever That Is, May Now Be In”, The New York Times, July 23.
Zimmer, William. “ART; Faces in Photographs; A Region Vividly Portrayed”, The New York Times, September 17.
FILMS
2019
Ashes to Ashes, directed by Taylor Rees and Renan Ozturk, documentary, May 24.
2011
All Me: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert, directed by Vivian Ducat, documentary, October 13.