Mike Henderson: Chicken Fingers, 1976–1980

 

Born and raised in rural Marshall, Missouri, Mike Henderson (b. 1943) moved to the Bay Area to attend the San Francisco Art Institute in 1965. His early, breakthrough figurative paintings from this period reveal the spirit of protest and social justice in 1960s San Francisco, as well as the vibrant community of artists and friends that would nourish his creativity for decades to come. 

 

Leaving behind the explicitly political, figurative style that had defined the previous decade, by the mid-1970s, Henderson was conjuring ethereal, otherworldly spaces filled with promise, mystery, and hope. Chicken Fingers highlights this important moment in Henderson’s creative evolution, with a suite of mixed-media works on canvas. Named for a key work from this period, the exhibition’s title suggests a slippery world just within our grasp: Shaped, painted, and burnt pieces of canvas, fabric from vintage clothes, and even an old wallet are incorporated into fully resolved constellations in which lunar spheres often float above a distant horizon. A group of corresponding works on paper use architectural forms to evoke interstitial spaces — arched doorways and balustrades opening onto multicolored skies. 

 

Bringing together these works for the first time since their creation, Chicken Fingers offers a revelatory look at an artist at the height of his creative powers, reflecting both Henderson’s personal journey and his place in the culture at large. 

 

Chicken Fingers is one of several unprecedented opportunities to view the work of Mike Henderson in January 2023. That month will also see the opening of his first museum retrospective, Mike Henderson: Before the Fire, 1965–1985 at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UC Davis; the release of his first major monograph, published by UC Press; a conversation by the artist at FOG Design + Art 2023; and a screening of his early experimental short films at The Academy Museum in Los Angeles.