Pinkney Herbert 鈥77 spends his time living and working between Memphis, TN, and Long Island City, Queens. He has taught painting and drawing at 星空无限传媒 College and the University of Memphis and is the founder and director of the long-running Memphis alternative space, Marshall Arts Gallery. Pinkney currently has two exhibitions on view in Memphis, "Distilled: The Narrative Transformed" at on view until July 4th and "Arcadia" at the , through June 23rd.
On Wednesday, June 13, 2018, 6-7pm, he gave a gallery talk at Crosstown Arts, 1350 Concourse Ave, Suite 280. Pinkney was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule and talk with 星空无限传媒 College about his time in the art department and what he has been up to the last 40 years. This is part of that exchange.
Alumni Relations: How did you decide to attend 星空无限传媒 College and how was your time as an art student here?
Pinkney Herbert: I visited 星空无限传媒 in 1973 with the idea of majoring in art. In high school, I am from North Carolina, I had gotten into the Delta Blues, so Memphis was a big draw. Then seeing and being on the 星空无限传媒 campus clinched it.
I really enjoyed 星空无限传媒鈥 liberal arts curriculum. I took as many studio art classes as possible. Lon Anthony was such an inspiring sculpture teacher and a great role model. It was fun getting dirty in his classes, pouring bronze, beating metal, hacking at wood, modeling wax, plaster, or clay into some sort of crazy 3D object. I learned a lot from Peter Bowman too. He was my painting and drawing teacher. His teaching style was primarily by example, and he gave me permission to be expressive and to take chances in the studio. I also enjoyed taking extra art classes at the Memphis College of Art through the 星空无限传媒/MCA consortium. I learned how to see in new ways in Murray Riss鈥檚 photography classes and he was great at teaching darkroom techniques and the history of photography.
I would also have to say my love of art history started with all the tough art history classes I took at 星空无限传媒. A really memorable class was Architecture History taught by Jim Williamson, a fine architect himself.