Opening reception for Highwaymen artist is February 2, at the Matheson Museum

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The community is invited to the opening reception of “Beyond Expectations: Florida’s Highwaymen” welcoming legendary Highwaymen artist, Mary Ann Carroll, the only female Highwaymen artist on Thursday, February 2, 2012, at 6:30 p.m. at the Matheson Museum.

The program will feature a gallery talk by Carroll, a demonstration of her art style and form in the museum gallery, along with a panel discussion featuring local artists - Ernest Lee, Alynne Harris and Nkwanda Jah.  The panel will be moderated by Dr. Patricia Hilliard-Nunn, Associate Professor of African-American Studies at the University of Florida. This program is made possible through a grant from the Florida Humanities Council.

Along with other Highwaymen artists, and the only female in the group, she was inducted into the Florida Artist Hall of Fame in 2004.  More than a dozen of Mary Ann Carroll’s paintings will be on exhibit and available for purchase. The exhibition will also feature a student art work inspired by Carroll’s art form and that of other Highwaymen artist.  The youth art exhibit was done in collaboration with the Alachua County Public Schools.

Originating in the mid-1950’s, an era marked by racism, poverty and brutality, these self-taught entrepreneurs mentored each other, while they painted on basic materials like Upson board for canvasses, and crown molding for frames.  Local galleries shunned their work, so they peddled their art from car trunks along area roadways, hence their name, Highwaymen. Their art freed them from work in citrus groves and labor camps, and they created a body of work that has become not only a timeless collection of a natural environment, but a symbol of determination beyond expectations.

Read the blog about Florida Highwaymen Exhibits in Gainesville or about Black History Month events at your library.