Cotton Cross (White), 2012
Winfred Rembert was an artist from Georgia who lived and worked in New Haven, CT in his later years. His artwork, painted on carved and tooled leather, displays memories of his youth, growing up in the Jim Crow South. His rhythmic, vivid compositions depicted Georgia cotton fields, juke joints, and church services, as well as his encounters with racial and police violence in the aftermath of a civil rights protest, and the seven years he spent on a Georgia chain gang.
His paintings have been exhibited at museums and galleries around the country, including the Yale University Art Gallery, the Hudson River Museum, and The Adelson Galleries in New York. In 2011 Rembert was the subject of an award-winning documentary film, All Me: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert, by Vivian Ducat, and in 2015, Rembert was honored by Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative. Most recently, Taylor Rees’ 2020 documentary, Ashes to Ashes, takes an intimate look at Winfred Rembert’s and Dr. Shirley Jackson Whitaker’s reckoning with racist violence in America.
His paintings have been exhibited at museums and galleries around the country, including the Yale University Art Gallery, the Hudson River Museum, and The Adelson Galleries in New York. In 2011 Rembert was the subject of an award-winning documentary film, All Me: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert, by Vivian Ducat, and in 2015, Rembert was honored by Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative. Most recently, Taylor Rees’ 2020 documentary, Ashes to Ashes, takes an intimate look at Winfred Rembert’s and Dr. Shirley Jackson Whitaker’s reckoning with racist violence in America.