Nene Humphrey (born 1947) has worked as an interdisciplinary artist and educator from the
1970s onward. She grew up in Portage, Wisconsin. She was christened Mary Nene, but has used
the name "Nene Humphrey" throughout her professional career as an artist.
Humphrey attended St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana and graduated in 1969 with her
bachelor's degree in Art with a minor in English. She went on to earn a master's degree from
the Cambridge-Goddard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1972. Her
master's thesis, "Art and Alternative Education for the Young Child," focused on engaging
young children in the experience of art with practicing artists in the public schools. Her
thesis was derived from her own experience teaching art in public and alternative schools.
In 1978, Humphrey completed her M.F.A. at York University in Toronto, Canada. Her thesis
project was conceptually as well as materially based, establishing the direction her art
would take throughout her career. Humphrey moved to New York in 1978. In 1984, she married
fellow artist Benny Andrews.
She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums
throughout the U.S. During her early career, she identified her family history and her
childhood in Portage as a major influence in her artwork and actively worked to collect
genealogical materials that informed her interests and her art. Her later work explores
loss, the neurobiology of emotion and the beauty inherent in both. This work includes,
drawing, field recordings, photography, video and sculpture. Since 2019 collaboration across
disciplines has become increasingly important to Humphrey's practice. She has worked with
musicians, scientists, filmmakers and performers to create installations, videos and
performances in galleries, museums and theatrical venues.
Her work as an artist has achieved commercial and critical success, including a NEA
Individual Artist Grant (1983), Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship (1986) and the "Anonymous
was a Woman" Award (1999). Humphrey's work has been written about in numerous publications
including The New York Times, Art in America and ArtNews, Sculpture Magazine, and
Hyperallergic and is included in major private and public collections. She also taught at a
number of institutions, including Parsons School of Art and Design, University of
Connecticut, Princeton University and the Rhode Island School of Design. Since 2010 she has
been the Artist in Residence at the New York University LeDoux Center for Neural Science.
She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
www.nenehumphrey.com
Artist in Residence LeDoux Lab: www.cns.nyu.edu/home/ledoux
