Bio

Janet Olivia Henry (b. 1947; East Harlem, New York) is an artist and educator who lives and works in Jamaica, Queens. She was educated at the School of Visual Arts and the Fashion Institute of Technology and received a fellowship in education from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In partnership with filmmaker Linda Goode Bryant, Henry designed and produced Black Currant, a magazine highlighting the experimental work of artists showcased at Just Above Midtown (JAM). She was a member of the Women’s Action Coalition(WAC), a feminist open alliance that sought to address issues of women’s rights through direct action. She participated in WAC’s drum corps and currently co-leads a Project EATS drumming group.

Henry is a life-long educator and has worked at the New York State Council on the Arts, the Studio Museum in Harlem’s education department, the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, the Lower Eastside Girls Club, the Children’s Art Carnival, and the Brooklyn Heights Montessori School. Henry has presented solo and two-artist exhibitions at Gordon Robichaux, New York; STARS, Los Angeles; Hollybush Gardens, London (two-artist with Cynthia Hawkins); P·P·O·W Gallery, New York; Just Above Midtown (JAM), New York; Lower Eastside Girls Club Community Gallery, New York; Cedar Crest College, Allentown, PA (curated by Cynthia Hawkins); John Jay College, New York; Hallswalls, Buffalo, NY (curated by Sara Kellner); Pulse Art, New York; Seventh Second Photo Gallery, New York (curated by Wendy Tiefenbacher); Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY (curated by Olivia Georgia); Public Art Fund’s Messages to the Public, New York; Basement Workshop, New York; and The Exhibitions Gallery, Jamaica, NY.

Henry’s work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions including at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; New Museum, New York; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; California African American Museum, Los Angeles; Queens Museum, New York; Newark Museum, NJ; Matthew Marks Gallery, New York; a. SQUIRE, London; Candice Madey, New York; A.I.R Gallery, New York; and Artists Space, New York. Her work has been reviewed and featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Artforum, ARTnews, Hyperallergic, Flash Art, Frieze, Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles, and Smithsonian Magazine, and BOMB among others. Henry’s work is held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Dorsky Museum at the State University of New York, New Paltz, NY; and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.