Everett Mayo has been an exhibiting painter and printmaker since 1966 and teacher of art, design and art history in various capacities since 1968. He has worked as a curator and gallerist in both public and private sectors since 1968, and as Incept Coordinator in 1974 helped start Pratt Institute’s Utica Division. Tenured professor 1994, now retired, he came to NC Wesleyan in 1992 and built the following: a Studio Art Minor; collaborating with the architect designed the Four Sisters Gallery of Self-Taught Visionary [Outsider] Art and the continuing development of that permanent collection; and a year-round exhibition program in the college’s Mims and Civic galleries.
His evolution as an artist has cycled from representation to abstraction, representation and back to abstraction over the decades. First and foremost he claims the painter’s task is to attempt to make the paintings beautiful to look at. In the recent past he was making oil and watercolor paintings that are rooted in Medieval Irish interlacement and early Christian monastic illumination…some are serious-minded, some are suggestive, and some are playful. 2015-19 his abstractions have been inspired by the historic cast iron fancy work in the architectural detail found in Savannah. Most recently his abstractions involve interwoven images of American classic cars vintage ‘59-‘62.
He solo exhibited in 2017 at the Butcher Gallery in Savannah. To name some more significant solo exhibitions during the 80s and 90s: Chronocide Galleries NYC; Cruz Gallery, Tarboro, NC; Gallery C, Raleigh NC; Helio Galleries NYC; West Broadway Galleries NYC; and Stanley Gallery, Utica NY; and numerous groups with note: Linea Gallery, Rome IT; Neo Persona NYC.
His work is found in the permanent collections of Coca Cola, Cooperstown Art Assoc., IBM, and the Munson-Williams-Proctor Museum of Art amongst other public and private collections.