New York Café

Benny Andrews was an African American painter, printmaker, and collage artist. He grew up in in the segregated south and served in the United States Air Force after graduating from high school. Andrews earned his BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Committed to social change, Andrews created a prison arts program that became a national model, co-founded the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition, and served as director of the Visual Art Program for the National Endowment for the Arts. Andrew’s figural paintings, prints, and collages dignify and celebrate people’s experiences of everyday life. “New York Café” presents a diverse group of five individuals sitting at round tables and drinking from coffee mugs. Large letters spelling the word “Restaurant” in reverse are barely visible on a bright picture window. The patterned walls and checkered floor of the restaurant’s interior energize the otherwise casual scene.