Kennedy Center exhibits works from acclaimed autistic artist

Photo by Chris Collins

An exhibit featuring the work of Laura Craig McNellis will be on display at the Kennedy Center through May 31. McNellis, a self-taught artist, has developmental disabilities and autism.

"Internal Conversations," an exhibit of 16 paintings by Laura Craig McNellis, is on display in the foyer of the Kennedy Center/MRL Building on Vanderbilt's Peabody College campus through May 31.

McNellis was born in Nashville in 1957 and has developmental disabilities and autism, although this latter diagnosis was not made until she was an adult. She lives in North Carolina where she is part of the Studio XI/Signature Home.

McNellis has been painting with tempera and watercolor since early childhood. Her work has been described as an eloquent expression of emotional depth and provides a vivid record of her powers of observation. Her depiction of the persons, objects and events she encounters every day makes it clear that she sees a different world, though in no way reduced, and that she has the ability to describe that world in a powerful and beautiful way.

In 1992, McNellis' work was introduced to owners of the Ricco-Maresca Gallery in New York City, which is regarded as one of the finest venues of "outsider" and "self-taught" art in the country. In 1993, the gallery mounted a one-woman show of her work, which led to national and international recognition in the world of self-taught art, including gallery shows and museum exhibitions. Discussions of McNellis and her work appear in American Self-Taught, by Frank Maresca and Roger Ricco (Knopf, 1993) and in Contemporary American Folk Art: A Collector's Guide, by Chuck and Jan Rosenak (Abbeville Press, 1996).

Eleven of McNellis' paintings are on permanent display at the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland. Private collectors in Europe and the United States have purchased many of her paintings.

The exhibit is on view Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sponsored by the Kennedy Center, it is one of a series of artwork exhibitions by or about people with disabilities. For information, call 322-8240.