Kathleen Henderson: Clappers
Through allegory, satire, and narrative, Kathleen Henderson presents a new suite of drawings that confronts the intersecting realities of ecological chaos, the rise of authoritarianism, and the fragility of contemporary American life. The exhibition reimagines death not as a dramatic visitor but as an ordinary participant in life—a quiet metaphor for living amid upheaval and uncertainty.
“This particular suite of drawings is an ongoing fretful reflection on the rapid escalation of climate change, its effects on the Earth's plant and animal species as well as the increasingly absurd and insane protestations to the contrary by the extreme right and their partners in crime; fascistic tech overlords.”
Henderson was Artist in Residence at the Mahler and LeWitt Studios in Spoleto, Italy this past winter, and there began thinking about the origins of fascism in Italy and Spain. She came across the life story of Marquis de Mores—a French aristocrat who is generally referred to as the first fascist. In the late 1800’s, de Mores went to the Dakotas and purchased thousands of acres of land along with cattle and horses from Sitting Bull. After failing to shake up the Chicago beef industry, he retreated to Paris and was instrumental in stirring up an anti-Semitic “shitstorm” and later became known as the Butcher of Paris. This story resonated with the artist as it connected for Henderson a story from the so-called Great American West to the early purges of 20th-century European fascism.
“Most people I know can speak to the horrors of Native American genocide and enslavement but also somehow maintain a sense that America is a country that is an experiment in democracy and at times is/was moving towards a better society, a liberal democracy. As fascism has come to America, many Americans have been slow to believe it could ever be possible or that it really is here.”
Clouds flood the land. Americans tend to appearances. Dominating the scenes are pairs making the best of it—death makes the bed. Employing greasy oil sticks and dilutions of them, Henderson uses the power of resonant lines and saturated shading to present the haplessness of daily life while extremists jail, deport, kill, and trample rights.
Kathleen Henderson is a visual artist based in the Delaware River Valley, Pennsylvania. Her practice draws from decades spent navigating the space between illusion and reality. Before devoting herself primarily to drawing, Henderson painted theatrical sets, film productions, architectural facades, circus rings, and elaborate environments that transformed ordinary spaces into convincing fictions. This experience—moving fluidly between art, labor, performance, and storytelling—continues to inform a body of work that is at once humorous, psychologically charged, and acutely observant. Her images occupy the same space as her stories: where the mundane becomes surreal, fiction quietly inhabits reality, and the familiar reveals its underlying strangeness.
Henderson has presented solo exhibitions throughout Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as at The Drawing Center in New York. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and her work is included in the collections of the Hammer Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She was a staff artist at Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland for over ten years and was the founding editor of the Creative Growth magazine, which showcases the unfolding and expanding world of art and disability. She is the executive director of Studio Route 29, a progressive art studio in Frenchtown, New Jersey that opened in 2022. Henderson is represented by Track 16 Gallery, where Clappers is her third solo exhibition.