Berry Campbell gallery presents its third solo exhibition featuring the works of Frank Wimberley, a 99-year-old African American artist renowned for his abstract expressionist style. The exhibition, titled “Frank Wimberley: Before More After Less,” offers a comprehensive look at Wimberley’s artistic journey spanning over five decades.
Frank Wimberley, based in Corona, Queens, and Sag Harbor, New York, has maintained a consistent and distinctive approach to abstract art throughout his career. His work is deeply rooted in the Abstract Expressionist tradition, drawing particular inspiration from Willem de Kooning. Wimberley’s artistic philosophy aligns closely with that of his friend and collector, the legendary jazz musician Miles Davis, emphasizing authenticity in personal expression.
The exhibition showcases a diverse range of Wimberley’s work, including paintings, sculptures, and collages created between 1969 and 2025. A significant portion of the display focuses on pieces from the 1990s, characterized by their heavily textured surfaces incorporating materials such as canvas and sand. These works, predominantly featuring blacks, whites, and earth tones, evoke a subtle, poetic quality. Many of these paintings have not been publicly exhibited since their original showings at venues like the Cinque Gallery, June Kelly Gallery, and Howard University.
In recent years, Wimberley’s art has garnered increasing recognition. He held a solo exhibition at the Arts Center at Duck Creek in East Hampton, New York, in 2021, and his work was included in the “Creating Community: Cinque Gallery Artists” exhibition at the Art Students League in New York. The Greenville County Museum of Art in South Carolina featured his art in their “Collection Highlights: African-American Art” exhibition in 2023. Currently, Wimberley’s work is part of the group exhibition “Acts of Art and Rebuttal in Greenwich Village” at the Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery at Hunter College, New York.
Wimberley’s recent induction into the Guild Hall Academy of Arts by Eric Fischl further cements his status in the art world. His works are part of prestigious collections, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Smithsonian Institution of American Art, among others.
The exhibition is accompanied by a 68-page catalogue featuring a biography by Lisa N. Peters, PhD, and original text by Wimberley himself, discussing his work in collage. This text was originally written for a group exhibition at Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York, in 1979.
The exhibition “Frank Wimberley: Before More After Less” opens on Thursday, February 6, and runs through March 8, 2025, with an opening reception scheduled for Saturday, February 15, 2025, from 2 to 4 pm.
