The Heckscher Museum of Art’s current exhibition Richard Mayhew: Reinventing Landscape 
celebrates the work of a major American artist who spent his formative years in Amityville, Long Island. Mayhew (b. 1924) grew up on the south shore, where he formed a deep connection to the natural world and first learned about art. Spanning six decades, the paintings on view reflect his Native American and African American heritage. The abstract landscapes—which he terms mindscapes—convey inner states and feelings through evocative color, diffused form, and atmospheric space.
After enjoying The Heckscher Museum’s Mayhew exhibition, don’t miss the chance to see the artist’s work within the context of a broad range of Indigenous art at the Southampton Arts Center’s exhibition Outcropping – Indigenous Art Now, on view February 4 to April 9, 2022. The Heckscher Museum is loaning two early prints by Mayhew from our collection to the exhibition. In these works on paper, Mayhew rendered groupings of trees in his signature hazy, abstract style. The lithographs will be on view alongside art by contemporary Shinnecock artists and Indigenous artists from sovereign nations throughout the United States. As the Southampton Arts Center describes, the exhibition “will address Native issues across the country, highlighting shared and individual triumphs and struggles. The title Outcropping refers to Shinnecock’s translation into English as ‘People of the Stony Shore,’ and Shinnecock’s long connection to this land.”
Outcropping is curated by Jeremy Dennis, a contemporary fine art photographer, a member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, and the founder of Ma’s House. The Heckscher Museum of Art’s current exhibition Moonstruck: Lunar Art from the Collection features Dennis’s photograph The Moon Person Ascends (2014).
