BMAC presents new exhibits starting this Saturday
Eight new exhibitions open at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) on Saturday, July 11. There will be a 5 pm opening party to which the public are welcome, celebrating the exhibiting artists and curators. The event will feature food from Guilford Country Store and Puerto Rican Bakery II, a cash bar by Stone Church, and music by DJ Prismatic. Doors open to BMAC members at 4:30 pm.
According to BMAC Director of Exhibitions Sarah Freeman, the new exhibitions, which include sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, and textiles, take the opportunity of America’s 250th birthday to explore ideas of cultural citizenship, overlooked histories, and the importance of community and belonging.
In “Learning to See,” artist Richard Haynes, who was born in the segregated South, transforms a history of division and celebrates the beauty of togetherness through depictions of everyday moments. Curated by Alison Crites, the exhibition features boldly-colored acrylic paintings, more than 50 black-and-white drawings, the artist’s preparatory sketches for a series based on quilt patterns believed to have conveyed messages along the Underground Railroad, previously unseen images from his “Burning of the Bronx” series, and more. Haynes and Crites will give a public talk about the exhibition on Saturday, August 29, at 5:30 pm.
In “Magos de la Tierra (Magicians of the Land),” Orlando Estrada and Jacoub Reyes present sculptures, assemblages, paintings, and wood carvings that examine the generational impacts of migration and cultural disintegration, reimagining ideas presented in the landmark 1989 Centre Pompidou exhibition, “Magiciens de la Terre.” The exhibition was curated by frequent BMAC collaborator David Rios Ferreira, who will lead a walkthrough with the artists on Sunday, July 12, at 1 pm.
Also curated by Rios Ferreira, “Formas Feroces y Tiernas (Fierce and Tender Forms)” features the work of Boricuan artist Juanita Lanzo. Lanzo’s partially translucent, intricately layered paintings and drawings of biomorphic forms draw upon human anatomy and the microscopic world. A longtime educator, Lanzo will lead a workshop titled “Exploring Your Inner Landscape” at Brattleboro’s River Gallery School on Saturday, September 26, at 2 pm.
Linda Sok’s “Warped Archive,” curated by Emily Alesandrini, consists of jewel-toned weavings that honor lost or destroyed Cambodian textiles. Based in Rhode Island and Australia, Sok collaborates with Cambodian family members to reinterpret written histories from such sources as French colonial archives at the National Museum of Cambodia, family records, and other museum collections. Sok will discuss these works in a public talk on Saturday, August 15, at 5:30 pm.
The museum’s Ticket Gallery is the site of an exhibition of graphite portraits and narratives depicting Vermonters who have died from drug addiction. “Drug Addiction: Real People, Real Stories” is part of the national INTO LIGHT Project, which uses the power of art and storytelling to address the stigma and shame experienced by those struggling with substance use disorder and to honor the lives of those depicted. Each portrait and narrative was created from photographs and biographical information provided by surviving loved ones. A panel discussion with representatives of the INTO LIGHT Project and local experts in substance use disorder will take place at the museum on Thursday, August 13, at 7:30 pm.
Brattleboro-based artist Madeline Fan is a first-generation Chinese-American whose birthday is just after the Fourth of July. In an interactive installation fittingly titled “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” Fan looks anew at the well-known nursery rhyme, offering viewers an opportunity to consider whether one is a yankee doodle, a macaroni, both or neither.
Opening alongside the six new indoor exhibitions are two new outdoor installations. “Migration/Home” was conceived and organized by Brattleboro artist Jonathan Gitelson as a way of marking America’s 250th birthday. It fills the museum’s seven large, outward-facing window bays with reproductions of original artworks created for the occasion by members of Brattleboro’s resettled refugee community: Marwa Safa Azimi, Butunga Bibimba, Abdullah Elhan, Sean Kiziltan, and Zuhra Nadem. “Big Choices,” which consists of two large sculptures by Peter Dellert on the museum’s front lawn—a wrench and a partially buried, vintage extension cord—pays homage to hand tools.
The new exhibitions will remain on view through Sunday, November 1, with the exception of “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” which closes Monday, September 7.
The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center presents rotating exhibits of contemporary art, complemented by lectures, artist talks, film screenings, and other public programs. BMAC is open Wednesdays through Sundays, 10 am to 4 pm. Admission is “pay as you wish.”
The museum is wheelchair accessible. For more information and accessibility requests go to brattleboromuseum.org, call (802) 257-0124 or email office@brattleboromuseum.org.
