Essie Bendolph Pettway

Essie Bendolph Pettway was born in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, in 1956. Essie was taught to quilt by her mother, Mary Lee Bendolph, a renowned quilt maker. Essie always looked up to her mother’s quilt work and by the time she was twelve, she made her first quilt.

Essie’s work was included in the first major museum exhibition introducing Gee’s Bend to the art world in 2002, The Quilts of Gee’s Bend, originating at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Additional museum venues for this exhibition include the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Orlando Museum of Art, The Walters Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, the Speed Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, Milwaukee Art Museum and the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Work by Essie Bendolph Pettway is in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Essie Bendolph Pettway was featured in the following gallery exhibitions:

My Way: The Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers and Contemporary Abstraction, Parts and Labor, Beacon, NY, 2020

My Way: A Gathering, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, 2023

Gee's Bend Today Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, 2025

 

Click Here for available works by Essie Bendolph Pettway

 

Essie Bendolph Pettway is featured in the following video: