gallery exhibition Archives

As we have all been required to spend concentrated time in our homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic spaces have developed new contexts and significance. Through humor, tragedy, the magical and the mundane, the artists in Domestic State explore the meaning and narrative of domestic spaces and objects. Han Seok You photographs himself in the US and Korea, in an effort to define what “home” means. Manal Abu Shaheen’s series Julian follows the experiences of her brother, a Lebanese-American single father, raising his family on a Pennsylvania farm. Elizabeth Duffy’s installations and objects allude to the apparent comforts of home while revealing its contradictions. Shabnam Janessari’s saturated paintings depict spaces that empower the complex realities of Iranian female identity. In addition to work by contemporary artists, pieces from Wheaton’s Permanent Collection offer a contrast between past and present.

Featured artists include: Manal Abu Shaheen, Maria G. Baker, Elizabeth Duffy, Shabnam Janessari, Andrew Raftery, and Han Seok You.

Patricia Encarnación and Crys Yin will share their artwork and discuss how their art practice connects with their activist work. Yin’s paintings, drawings and sculptures deal with cultural misconnections and embrace the comedic side of personal experiences. Encarnación is an Afro-Dominican artist who explores perceptions of being Caribbean through quotidian objects, landscapes, and the aesthetics she was exposed to growing up in her homeland, the Dominican Republic. Both artists have work currently on display in To Scatter or Sow: Diaspora in Contemporary Art in the Beard and Weil Galleries. Join us on zoom for the virtual presentation and conversation.

Register here.

To Scatter or Sow: Diaspora in Contemporary Art serves as a central event for Wheaton’s campus-wide initiative to consider Diasporas: Economies, Boundaries, and Kinship. The title of the show is taken from the Greek root of the word, and evokes not only the dispersal inherent in diaspora but also the potential for rich growth. Framing the multi-faceted idea of diasporas through the work of eight contemporary artists, the exhibition includes video, photography, painting, ceramics and text-based work. The exhibition will be presented both virtually and on the Wheaton campus.

The exhibition includes work by the following artists: Alina Bliumis, Chinatown Pretty: Andria Lo & Valerie Luu, Isabella Cruz-Chong, Patricia Encarnación, Michael Gac Levin, Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, and Crys Yin.