August 16th-Sept 28th
On Particular Colors
Kristen Cliburn, Aaron Holz, Michael Lazarus, Laurel Sparks, & Jade Yumang
Opening Reception:
Saturday, July 12, 3-6PM
Color dazzles and gives pleasure, and yet, as seen in semaphore signals, national flags, team jerseys, bike gang colors or gay male hankie code, particular colors can overflow with meanings and associations for some while appearing to others as simple optical sensation. There are colors employed and presented by these 5 artists that in informed viewers evoke national identity, mystical powers, landscape hues, optical tests and historical flags. Aesthetic concerns and classic color theory are present of course, but only in as much as they informed previous instances of these colors deployed. Color, that basic building block of painterly experiences are researched, reiterated and critically deconstructed by these artists.
Laurel Sparks, Hunter's Moon, 2023, Time Machines, water-based paint, poured gesso, paper pulp, glitter, collage, trinkets, holes, woven canvas strips, 36 x 36 in
Reading
Willa Cather: Uncloseted, Unforgotten
Sunday, August 31 at 5PM
Join us for a reading of Willa Cather’s groundbreaking short story A Wagner Matinée (1904), in which a Nebraska woman’s return to Boston stirs long-buried memories of art, beauty, and the life she gave up. When first published, the story startled readers by upending the popular image of the American West: instead of celebrating expansion and opportunity, Cather portrayed the prairie as a place of cultural deprivation and quiet emotional erosion.
Performed by Stephen Lang
Curated by Peter Cipkowski
Stephen Lang is an American stage and screen actor. He gained fame for his role as main antagonist Colonel Miles Quartitch in Avatar (2009), or role he reprised in the sequel Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). Lang is also known for roles in films such as Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989), Gettysburgand Tombstone (both 1993), Gods and Generals (2003), Public Enemies, The Men Who Stare at Goats (both 2009) Conan the Barbarian (2011), Don’t Breathe (2016) and its sequel Don’t Breathe 2 (2021). His television roles include Commander Nathaniel Taylor on Terra Nova (2011), Waldo on Into the Badlands (2015-18) and David Cord on The Good Fight (2021). Besides his film roles, Lang has had an extensive career on Broadway.
Peter Cipkowski is a literary and political historian at UCLA and the incoming president of the Board of Governors of the National Willa Cather Center. He has led programs across the country commemorating the sesquicentennial of Cather’s birth, with lectures and readings at the Boston Athenaeum, the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Library of Congress, the New York Society Library, UCLA, USC, and countless public libraries nationwide.
Willa Cather (1873–1947) was one of the most distinctive and enduring queer voices in 20th-century American literature. A peer of Wharton, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and Hemingway, Cather chartered her own path through determination, struggle, and artistic vision. Her groundbreaking novels—including O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, One of Ours, The Professor’s House, and Death Comes for the Archbishop—helped shape the American canon and continue to resonate today.
Willa Cather
Stephen Lack