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Sarah B. Smith GalleryJim Henry
Interference: A Retrospective of the Paintings of J.M. HenryFebruary 6 – March 1
This February, McGuffey Art Center celebrates the life and art of the late J.M. Henry. Presented in the Sarah Smith Gallery, Interference: A Retrospective of the Paintings of J.M. Henry, will open with a public reception on Friday, February 6, and close on March 1.
Guest curated by Deborah McLeod, this survey of Henry’s work—drawn primarily from the artist’s estate with the assistance of Jim’s daughter Alison Henry and McGuffey member Scott Smith—covers a lengthy period and reflects the many experimental approaches of a deeply respected and loved artist, known to many as “Jim.”
Jim’s artistic career was blossoming in North Carolina when he was diagnosed in 1995 with a rare, progressive lung disease. Jim was a marvel of brilliant, insuppressible creativity, and he was just so damn much fun. He left us on June 22, 2025, but he left us all with so much to hold onto. In the years that followed his diagnosis, he and his family relocated to Charlottesville to receive care at the University of Virginia’s Strickler Transplant Center. Throughout this period, Jim continued to paint and became a resident artist at McGuffey Art Center, where he was surrounded by a community of artists and friends.
In 2012, Jim received the gift of donor lungs. That remarkable gift provided the art world with canvas upon canvas of works that touched so many. Jim created luminous paintings filled with oxygen—canvases with life expressed in gentle, diaphanous color; gossamer layers of pigment that simultaneously contradicted and harmonized with themselves. It was a methodical process he often referred to as “interference.”
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