Babette Wainwright

Artist Statement

Babette Wainwright was born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She started painting market women at the age of nine. Her parents sent her to the US in the late 60’s to escape the oppressive regime of Papa Doc Duvalier. With no training in painting, her work was mainly guided by childhood memories and emotions. She paints peasant women, whom she recognizes as the veritable pillars of her culture, the Poto Mitan, as it is referred to in the Haitian Vodou tradition. Her work reflects the strength and beauty of her African ancestors; she uses this image in her art as a conduit for her cultural, political, and spiritual expression.

Babette’s work is exhibited extensively. As a youth, she exhibited at the Centre d’Art of Port au Prince, Haiti. In the United States, her work has been shown in Baton Rouge, Atlanta, Washington D.C, Iowa, North Carolina, and Chicago. In Wisconsin, her paintings have been shown, both in solo and in group exhibitions, in Milwaukee, Appleton, Spring Green, and in numerous venues around Madison.

In 1998 she discovered the pleasure and power of expressing herself three dimensionally with clay, making sculptures which are informed both by her African roots, and by the work of the pre-Colombian people of Haiti, the Arawaks. In 2000, she earned an MFA in Ceramics at the UW Madison. She has since been working in both mediums, using the female image as a vehicle for conveying her sense of uprootedness, and her spirituality.

Over the years Babette has been honored with various grants, and a fellowship from the Wisconsin Arts Board. More recently, she received a 2001 NCECA Merit Award for her ceramic sculpture “Low Tides” from Clay Times magazine. Her work is in various collections around the country.

Besides her paintings and sculpture, Babette is a published writer and poet whose cultural dilemma remains her central theme. Babette lives in Madison with her life partner Kathy, and their beagle Lupita. She has a 34 year old daughter, Angela, who lives in Denver.

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Solo Shows

2000	"Post Partum." MFA Thesis Exhibition, UW, Madison.
1999	Edwards Gallery, Madison East high School.
1998	"Cric-Crac." Alfons Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1996	"Cric-Crac." DeRicci Gallery, Edgewood College, Madison, Wisconsin.
1993	"Kindred Spirits." Koran Library Gallery, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa.
1991	"Entre Nous." Pillsbury House, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
1990	"Entre Nous." Madison Public Library, Madison, Wisconsin.
1989	"Entre Nous." Rhapsody Gallery, Madison, Wisconsin.
1987	"Bel Tiyon Pa Fe Bel Neges." South Madison Neighborhood Center, Madison, Wisconsin.
1986	"Caribbean Women Celebrated." St. Michael's Waiting Room Café Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin