Angela Hennessy

Angela Hennessy's textile-based installations map psychological vulnerabilities and often involve materials transformed beyond recognition. Much of her current body of work is based on the act of unraveling black velvet, a material that is rich in references to luxury, labor, and sensuality, and also slang for black women. Delicate and destructive manipulations of black velvet appear as washes of ink, smudges of charcoal, spots of mold, or clumps of hair. In Hennessy's practice, the color black has emerged as a recurring theme, referring both to Victorian mourning aesthetics and to a term of racial identification. Challenging formal categories of artistic disciplines, her work engages the dialogues of drawing and sculpture, yet remains firmly grounded in textile processes.

Angela has exhibited at Exit Art in New York as well as several Bay Area galleries, including the Oakland Art Gallery, the Richmond Art Center, Artwork SF, and the Oakland Museum of California. She was recently featured in a solo exhibition at Ampersand International Arts in San Francisco. In 2005 she was awarded a prestigious artist residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine.