11:09 a.m., Aug. 23, 2010----The University of Delaware Mechanical Hall Gallery will host “Her Story: Margo Humphrey Lithographs and Works on Paper” from Sept. 8 through Dec. 5.

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“Her Story” highlights more than 45 years of artistry by one of America's most unique talents. Humphrey's bold, expressive use of color and freedom of form defy the two dimensionality of the printmaking medium, creating a body of work that is engaging, exuberant and alive.

Through personal narrative Humphrey takes the viewer on a voyage of self-discovery that chronicles her life, loves, family, fears, joys and more. Although often intimate and idiosyncratic, Humphrey's personal stories can be linked to the political dynamics of the feminist art movement that emerged in the 1970s during her early years of development as an artist and printmaker.

Bold and saturated color, animated figures, and syncopated rhythmic arrangements are hallmarks of Humphrey's oeuvre. Joyful, expressive and at times humorous, her works offer artful commentary on American culture, including food ways, folkways, spirituality, love and loss.

Though Humphrey labels her distinctive style "sophisticated naive," the narrative complexity and technical skill of her works attest to her artistic acuity.

Her lithographs The Last Bar-B-Que (1987) and The History of Her Life Written Across Her Face (1991) have become iconic images in American visual culture, demonstrating her ability to capture aspects of a larger African American cultural experience through personal memory, confessional, and a unique symbolic language.

Humphrey's works have been exhibited internationally in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, and she has held grants from the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. Her works are in the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, among many others.

Humphrey was born in Oakland, Calif., in 1942 and studied fine art at California College of the Arts and Stanford University.

A dedicated professor and mentor, Humphrey began her teaching career in 1973 at the University of California Santa Cruz and has been on the faculty of the University of Maryland since 1989.

She completed a semester teaching residency funded by the Unidel Foundation at UD in 2005, during which she printed the work American Legacy.

Humphrey will return to the UD campus to discuss her work in conversation with Troy Richards, assistant professor in the Department of Art at the University of Delaware, at 5 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 16, in the Mechanical Hall Gallery. A reception will follow.

A master lithographer, Humphrey has worked with several important print ateliers, including Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, N.M. A number of works printed at Tamarind will be on view and its director, Marjorie Devon, will visit UD on Thursday, Sept. 30. Devon's presentation, “Mastering the Art of Collaboration: Partnerships in Printmaking,” will be at 5 p.m. in the Trabant Theatre in the Trabant University Center.

Exhibition events are sponsored by the Paul R. Jones Initiative, established in conjunction with the late benefactor's gift of African American art to UD.

The events are free and open to the public. To RSVP, send email to [universitymuseums@udel.edu] or call (302) 8037.

For more information and hours, see the University Museums website.

The exhibition was organized by the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland College Park and made possible through the support of a special fund from the Office of the President, University of Maryland, and major support from the Maryland State Arts Council.