The Widener Gallery will showcase its newest exhibit, Working Through/Working Forward, now through December 7, in the Austin Arts Center on the campus of Trinity College. The exhibition will feature artwork by regional artists, including David Borawski and Joe Bun Keo of Connecticut; Rosalyn Driscoll and Tekla McInerney of Massachusetts; and Deborra Stewart-Pettengill of New Hampshire. More information about the artists is available here.
According to Felice Caivano, Trinity’s fine arts curator, the exhibit will honor the importance of artistic practice during unprecedented times of upheaval and uncertainty.
“2020 and 2021 have been historic years marked by the presence of a devastating global pandemic, national turmoil, and the environment in crisis,” said Caivano. “Many artists turned to the familiar ground of their studios to process what was happening beyond.”
Art pieces to be displayed include Borawski’s Gonna Cross That Finish Line, 2021; Bun Keo’s “take out (heat/hate),” 2021; Driscoll’s Viral Knot 2, 2020; McInerney’s Rosary, 2021; and Stewart-Pettengill’s Echo, 2021, among other works.
Hartford artist Bun Keo said during the pandemic he spent more time with family and himself. To create assemblages, he used found and altered objects. His artwork “take out (heat/hate)” incorporates chopsticks from local Hartford Chinese takeout restaurant Yummy Yummy and the found brass letters e, h, t, and a.
“My current work is informed by personal experiences with mental health, debt, and identity,” said Bun Keo. “The jumble of brass letters can be rearranged as anagrams to produce the two mentioned words that correlate with the heightened anti-AAPI [Asian American Pacific Islander] discrimination using the take-out chopsticks as a symbol for AAPI stereotypes.”
The Widener Gallery hours are 1:00–4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The gallery will be closed November 23–28. Guests are required to be masked at the exhibit and show proof of vaccination. See Trinity College’s COVID-19 Visitor Policy for details.
The images are courtesy of photographer Peter R. Brown.
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