Born in 1932, Marilyn Henrion is a life-long New Yorker and a graduate of Cooper Union and Fordham University. She is represented in the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art and her works are included in five major museums and numerous corporate, and private collections internationally.
After graduating from Cooper Union in 1952, she married fellow-artist and classmate, Edward Henrion, a marriage that lasted 64 years until his passing in 2016, and which produced four children.
During the 1950’s and ’60’s, Marilyn and Ed were immersed in the art and literary scene of the era, attending meetings at the 8th Street Club where the abstract expressionists gathered, holding poetry salons at their Greenwich Village apartment where the “Beat” poets of the day would read from their work. Marilyn performed in Claes Oldenburg’s “Happenings” and at the newly-founded Judson Poets Theatre on Washington Square.
In 1989, after raising four children and retiring from a twenty-year career as Associate Professor/Career Counselor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Marilyn was able to devote full-time to her own creative life. Although she started as a painter in 1952, it was textiles that spoke to her in a way that paint never did. Upon resuming her creative work in the 1970’s, textiles became her medium of choice. After becoming a member of the Noho Gallery in New York in 1999, she had a solo exhibition every two years until 2020, when she relocated to Texas, each time presenting a new body of work.
In 2022 , at the age of 90, Henrion relocated her studio to Plano, Texas to spend time near family. While the subject matter of her work had always been focused on urban geometry, now, in its place, are scenes where nature and man-made structures interact, as well as those that focus on the natural world itself in all its glory.
"Marilyn Henrion: The Evolution of A Fiber Artist 1932-2019", documenting her creative journey, can be seen on YouTube. A documentary featuring the life and work of both Edward and Marilyn Henrion is slated for an October 2026 premiere at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, TX
