Richard Haynes: Learning to See
Artist Richard Haynes transforms our country’s history of division into a vision of unity and love. Working across different media, he celebrates togetherness and finds beauty in ordinary moments.
When depicting figures, Haynes often omits facial and racial details or uses rainbow colors instead of natural skin tones. These creative choices are part of his ongoing exploration of how humans see one another. Seeing, he reminds us, is not neutral or passive. Our capacity to see is shaped by personal experience, cultural background, and knowledge. For Haynes, connecting with others depends on learning to see—and love—without condition. He says, “When we learn to really look one another in the eye, I will start drawing people with eyes.”
This belief grew out of feeling invisible as a Black man despite his service in the U.S. Air Force and his accomplishments as a commercial photographer. During a period of profound despair, he contemplated suicide. A chance encounter with a minister helped change the course of his life, and Haynes found strength and purpose through faith and community. He began creating images of the world the way he wanted it to be: vibrant, compassionate, and whole.
The idea of wholeness takes visual form in Haynes’s newest work: circular paintings whose round shapes evoke the world itself. These works contain references to some of the most urgent crises facing humanity today: war, famine, displacement, and persecution. The title of the series, World Leaders in Moral, Spiritual Decline, suggests the failure of most leaders to resolve these issues. Haynes asserts that meaningful change depends instead upon collective action rooted in compassion for others.
— Alison Crites, curator
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Alison Crites is the founder of Alison Crites Exhibits, which focuses on matching artists and institutions, stories and audiences. Previously, Crites was Manager of Exhibitions & Interpretive Engagement at the Southern Vermont Arts Center, where she broadened artistic representation and increased public engagement by reinvigorating the artist membership program, securing artwork loans from major institutions, establishing financial assistance for artists, and integrating visitor- and community-centered interpretive practices.
Crites has also held positions in interpretation and community engagement at the Detroit Institute of Arts and in fundraising at China Institute of America. She holds multiple master’s degrees: in Leadership in Museum Education from Bank Street College of Education, in International Education Development from Teachers College at Columbia University, and in English from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Davidson College. Crites has served on the board of the Association of Art Museum Interpretation and is a member of the Collections Committee at the Fuller Craft Museum.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Richard Haynes is a visual storyteller whose bright, bold images kindle a sense of connection and presence. He is nationally recognized for his paintings, drawings, and photography. His work is in the permanent collections of the Currier Museum of Art, Massachusetts General Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Center, Avery Art Institute, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the Historic New England Center, the University of New Hampshire, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library, among other institutions.
Born into a family of sharecroppers in Charleston, South Carolina, Haynes and his family were part of The Great Migration of millions of African Americans from the South to the urban North and Midwest. Haynes’s family moved to Harlem before settling in the Bronx. His 7th-grade teacher and mentor nurtured his early artistic passion and talent. After graduating from the city’s High School of Art and Design and serving in Vietnam, Haynes earned a BFA in painting from Lehman College, followed by an MFA in photography from Pratt Institute.
In 1989, Haynes moved to the New Hampshire Seacoast, where he is now the director of the Office of Admissions for Recruitment and Access at the University of New Hampshire. He is known statewide as an artist-activist, culture keeper, and mentor. His lifelong artmaking has coalesced in two areas: semi-abstract figurative painting and drawing and studio photography. His mission is to create and share images that draw people into a restorative experience.
RELATED EVENTS
July 11, Saturday, 5 p.m. — Opening of New Exhibits
August 29, Saturday, 5:30 p.m. — Art Talk: Richard Haynes
RELATED PRESS
Learning to Look Again — Artscope July/August 2026
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