Henry Speller: Mother Wit

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On display through Nov. 2. Born in 1903 in the tiny Delta community of Panther Burn, Mississippi, Henry Speller spent the first half of his life as a sharecropper and subsistence farmer, later moving to Memphis to work odd jobs for many years, from junk man to landscaper, garbage collector and janitor for a trucking company. His drawings often capture both the vibrance and chaos of life, and although his world was relatively narrowly defined, he seemingly employed all of his experience and attention in service to his art. Through observation, memory and an intuitive formal virtuosity, Speller transcribed the past and present, the country and city, through his expansive imagination.