Life Still

October 22 - December 3, 2021

Since early 2020, society has been living through what has been referred to as ‘unprecedented times.’ The global community continues to battle a pandemic that impacts all facets of daily life. Zoom became classrooms and workplaces, mask mandates and stay-at-home orders were issued for public safety, and everyone had to grapple with the abrupt disconnect from family and friends. Homes quickly morphed into both fortresses of refuge and the command centers for all aspects of our lives, which often involved countless days without physical contact with the world around us. To say Life Still is about the pandemic would be too broad, yet to declare it’s only about still-lives is too limiting. What resides at the core of the exhibition is each artist’s connection to solitude, creating space for looking, and the domestic.

Daniel Gordon creates large-format photographs comprised of elaborate hand-made sculptures that mimic objects from his house. When human interaction is limited, Gordon’s pictures act as sirens for a party awaiting the guests. The paintings and sculptures of Jay Lynn Gomez often focus on immigrant laborers hired by individuals to work inside and outside homes. Whether it’s lawn care or house cleaning, these individuals provide desired services while often remaining invisible to large swaths of society.

Sedrick and Letitia Huckaby create paintings, sculptures, and photographs tethered to specific places and people. Often utilizing their family as source material, each artist creates objects that embrace future generations while referencing the past. Whether a sculpture of a child in front of an elderly relative or a dress from an important event, these works talk about how culture lives within the walls of a home. Josephine Halvorson’s paintings document specific sites found on hikes around her home in western Massachusetts. Often created from observation and utilizing debris from the site, these artworks become monuments to overlooked scenes in the landscape. Since the 1940s, Ellsworth Kelly, who was best known for his significant abstract works, had a sustained practice of creating observational drawings from nature. To him, this was a way to keep connected to the world around him through detailed study.

Carrie Scheider’s photographs and videos often focus on personal relationships and the individuality of her subjects. Her work, regardless of medium, always captures psychological complexity and intimacy with an eye towards empathy and respect. The artwork of Lorna Simpson has a long history of addressing themes of representation, identity, race, gender, and history. By posing philosophical questions and considering who is not presented within her photographs, it allows viewers to make connections that relate to their own perceptions of the human experience and how these views may hold cultural trappings.