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Updated: February 6, 2009, 11:57 am	Share    Print    Email

Guests at the event were serenaded by Riverhead's Galilee Ensemble Gospel Choir. Photos by Kelly Carroll

Southampton - With the exhibition of African-American artist Richard Mayhew's "Transcendental Landscapes" housed at the Avram Gallery on the campus of SUNY Stony Brook Southampton, the local college kicked-off Black History Month with a flair, hosting a party at the Avram complex with Mayhew, traveling all the way in from California, as the guest of honor.

"This is like coming home," Mayhew told his crowd of fans as he began his speech. "All of you are a part of me."

Amityville native and artist Richard Mayhew told the crowd Saturday night that if a painting doesn't feel right, "turn it upside down. I paint from my gut."

Growing up in Amityville in the 1920s and 1930s, Mayhew credits his grandmother with encouraging him to become an artist. However, in growing as an artist, he called his penchant for painting a "spiritual commitment," adding "I paint because I have to."

In the 1940s, Mayhew moved to New York City, attending the Brooklyn Museum of Art School and the Arts Student League. He was also one of the founders of the African-American artists' group Spiral, which was formed around the time of the civil rights' movement's early days. Over time, the group supported civil rights as it applied to the artistic world. When talking to Mayhew about his work, he takes a very spiritual, ethereal approach.

"There is a sensitivity of nature," he said, referring to his landscape-based exhibit. "I paint spiritual sensitivity. But if you try to do that, you lose it," he said, explaining the transient and ambiguous process of inspiration.

While Mayhew was being praised as the guest of honor for his breadth of work, he was also being recognized for his multicultural background. Not only is the artist of African-American descent, but Native American descent as well, a duality in his life that informs his paintings.

"I'm him. You're me," he asserted. "The unity of everyone really is one."

Former Mayhew student Gregory Turpan met up with his mentor at the event. Said Mayhew "that just made my day."

Mayhew was honored with a special silver and gold amulet, with a center of wampum, as a token of gratitude from Harry Wallace of the Moriches' Bay Native-American Unkechaug Nation. Former students also praised their influential professor.

Mayhew's "Transcendental Landscapes" exhibit will be on display at the Avram Gallery through March 21.

"He was such a magnificent teacher," lauded East Hampton's Gregory Turpan, who studied under Mayhew at the Pratt Institute in New York City. Turpan added that he had failed painting in his first go-around, but excelled at the course with Mayhew at the helm. "Everything changed," he said. "His way of teaching was so phenomenal."

Mayhew's exhibit began its run at the Avram Gallery on Dec. 5, and will continue until March 21. On Saturday, guests at the Avram complex viewed the artist's colorful landscapes as they dined on a buffet provided by the SUNY Southampton Faculty Student Association Café. Later in the evening, they were serenaded by Riverhead's Galilee Ensemble Gospel Choir, and many stayed for the viewing of Denzel Washington's most recent flick, "The Great Debaters," a film revolving around a 1930s African-American Harvard University debate team.

But very little could take the night away from Mayhew. "This is my land, I came home," the artist proclaimed. "What did I do in that painting? What does it look like? What does love look like?"

Brenda Simmons (center) enjoyed the night with her granddaughter, as well as friends Carol Spencer (left) and Denise Foster (right).

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