BRATTLEBORO-Artist Richard Haynes and curator Alison Crites will discuss Haynes’s exhibition, “Learning to See,” at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) Saturday, Aug. 29, at 5:30 p.m.
“Learning to See” brings together Haynes’s paintings, drawings, and photographs which imagine a more compassionate and connected world. Working across different media, he transforms experiences of separation and oppression into images that celebrate togetherness and find beauty in ordinary moments.
The exhibition includes Haynes’s newest body of work, “World Leaders in Moral, Spiritual Decline,” a series of circular paintings that evoke the shape of the world while depicting crises including war, famine, displacement, and persecution. The works reflect Haynes’s belief that meaningful change depends on collective action rooted in compassion for others.
Haynes often omits facial and racial details when depicting figures and uses bright rainbow colors in place of natural skin tones. He says these choices reflect his interest in perception and the ways that personal experience and cultural background inform how we perceive others. As Haynes puts it, “When we learn to really look one another in the eye, I will start drawing people with eyes.”
Born into a family of sharecroppers in Charleston, South Carolina, Haynes says he and his family were part of the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the urban North and Midwest United States. In the late 1950s, his family moved to Harlem before settling in the Bronx. In 1989, Haynes moved to the New Hampshire Seacoast region, where he is known as an artist-activist, culture keeper, and mentor.
“Richard transforms our country’s history of division into a vision of unity and love,” said Crites in a news release. “His work asks us to consider how we relate to one another, and reminds us that seeing is never neutral. The way we look at the world is shaped by our experiences, our histories, and what we have learned to recognize.”
“Learning to See” is on view through Nov. 1, 2026. Admission is free. Registration for the talk is recommended; walk-ins are welcome, space permitting. To register, visit brattleboromuseum.org or call 802-257-0124, ext. 101.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.