Exhibition celebrates abstract artist

Justyn Henriquez
Staff Writer

Vibrant color, geometric shapes and history fill the walls of Pomona College’s Benton Museum of Art, where students and visitors gathered Saturday for the opening reception for an exhibit by late artist Mavis Pusey. 

The exhibition titled “Mavis Pusey, Restless,” curated by Paulina Alvarez, features 100 works by the artist on loan from art collector Ian White. It includes Pusey’s drawings, with watercolor and gouache paintings. 

Pusey, a Jamaican-born painter, designer and educator, died in 2019.

The doors opened at 5 p.m. and within minutes the gallery was full of visitors, examining and discussing the array of works lining the gallery’s the white walls. 

Sarah Barnes, who was at the gallery Saturday, examined one painting titled “Study C. 1965.” 

The piece had various shades of red, blue, cream, orange and yellow all bordering each other to form rigid lines throughout the work.  

“It’s joyful, it’s powerful, it’s not to be messed with,” Barnes said of the piece. “The colors are sort of unexpected.”

Emit Bolls, a Pomona College junior, also enjoyed the show Saturday.

“Even when it is reduced to very simple geometric elements, like lines or squares or circles, it can still convey so much,” Bolls said.

White said he became aware of Pusey’s work over 10 years ago.

“Her work is formal, hard-edged… investigating the creative communities she engaged in,” White said. 

White’s effort to bring forth Pusey’s work is part of his broader goal to bring attention to artists whose work is outside the mainstream. 

Born in Jamaica in 1928, Pusey moved to the U.S. at 18. She studied fashion design in New York before switching to fine arts. 

Throughout most of her career, she was not well known.

Timothy Bolin, a La Verne resident who attended Saturday appreciated the show. 

“I thought it was cool they are having a whole exhibition focusing on an African American artist,” Bolin said.

“Mavis Pusey, Restless” will be on display through Jan. 3, 2027. The Benton Museum of Art is at 120 Bonita Ave. in Claremont. For more information visit pomona.edu/museum.

Justyn Henriquez can be reached at justyn.henriquez@laverne.edu.