Benny Andrews: Trouble

In 2022, the Andrews-Humphrey Family Foundation, who oversees the Benny Andrews Estate, was selected to join the inaugural grantee cohort of Thought Leaders, comprised of fourteen visionary leaders undertaking ambitious institutional initiatives. Over the years, this collaboration seeded the possibility for new connections to be made with artist, activist, and educator Benny Andrews’ (1930–2006) multifaceted practice. Created in close dialogue with the estate, this exhibition combines Andrews’ extensive archive with a selection of his paintings and works on paper to reflect the fullness of the artist’s practice, life, and advocacy, and the ways they are intertwined. This is the first major showing of Andrews’ artwork and archives together, bolstered by extensive research from the estate and many collaborators who will shine new light on his legacy as the year unfolds.

The title of the exhibition stems from the last entry found in Andrews’ studio journal from 1965–1972, in which the artist describes the state of being in trouble as an expression of being alive—that to fully understand the creative process one must trace all of the elements that encompass the creative process. The experiments, the failures, and the unfinished and unresolved ideas indicate an artist is in pursuit of something more, and to be in trouble is to embrace the struggle and the vulnerability of the process. A human being, trying their best. In Andrews’ words, “...try to do what you want to do, and try as much as possible to do it for yourself, try to stay away from committing yourself to being anything except what you feel you want to be.” 

Deeply self-reflective and voraciously observational, Andrews’ work captures his life and politics, his understandings of the art world and beyond, and most importantly, those he knew and those who mattered to him. With works and archival materials spanning four decades, Trouble demonstrates the various material strategies Andrews employed to get closer to his subjects, including himself. We are grateful for what Benny left for us all—a call to action, a call to pay attention, and a call to always ask for more.

As a collective endeavor, we’d like to thank The Andrews-Humphrey Family Foundation, The Estate of Mary Ellen Andrews, Nene Humphrey, Kyle Williams, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, Scott Ponik, Lowery Stokes Sims, Nadia Scott, Adrianna Glaviano, BearBear, Scathain, Container Corps and Tradecraft.

The Andrews-Humphrey Family Foundation (AHFF) was established in 2005 by artists Benny Andrews and Nene Humphrey. The Foundation builds knowledge and fosters understanding around the life and work of Benny Andrews. It upholds Andrews’s commitment to education, social justice and the project of creating a fuller, more accurate historical canon that acknowledges the contributions of women and people of color to the arts.

The Foundation oversees the Benny Andrews Estate: the artists’ personal archive and an extensive collection of his artworks located in his former studio in Brooklyn, NY. The AHFF’s mission is to provide educational programming on Andrews’s life and work, including online resources, student outreach, access for academic researchers, and an artist fellowship through MacDowell.