This season, the Addison is presenting works in a variety of media from the 18th century to the present in three new exhibitions. We hope you will join us, along with artists Alison Elizabeth Taylor and Lavaughan Jenkins, on Saturday, February 18, 5:00–7:00 pm, for a festive evening to celebrate these exciting shows! The event is free and open to the public.
Women and Abstraction: 1741–Now (through July 30) is comprised almost entirely of works from the collection. This exhibition explores how women have deployed the visual language and universal formal concerns of abstraction—color, line, form, shape, contrast, pattern, and texture—to create works of art across a wide variety of media (including paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, ceramics, textiles) from the 18th century to the present day.
Alison Elizabeth Taylor: The Sum of It (February 18–July 30) traces the evolution of the artist’s practice and consists of approximately 40 large-scale single panel works as well as a room-sized installation. Known for her daring and inventive fusion of marquetry, the centuries-old art of wood inlay, with gritty and provocative subject matter, Taylor tells tales that are unequivocally modern. The works assembled in the exhibition chronicle her steady mastery of the now nearly forgotten techniques of this rarified medium and reveal her talent as an extraordinary storyteller and chronicler of 21st-century American culture.
Lavaughan Jenkins: Edward E. Elson Artist-in-Residence (through July 30) is a focused installation of paintings produced during the artist’s six months as the Addison’s Edward E. Elson Artist-in-Residence, providing a glimpse into the Boston-based artist’s impressive body of work. These exciting new works build on the Jenkins’ ongoing quest to redefine painting and pay homage to the Black women who have made an impact on him personally as well as the larger world.
Images:
Lotte Jacobi, Photogenic, c. 1953, photogram, gelatin silver print, 10 x 7 15/16 inches, gift of Julia and Christopher C. Cook, 1986.42; Lavaughan Jenkins, Morning Sunrise, 2022, oil on panel, 30 1/8 x 22 5/8 x 2 1/2 inches, courtesy of the artist; Alison Elizabeth Taylor, Jolene, 2019, marquetry hybrid: wood veneer, oil, acrylic, and shellac, 58 x 44 1/2 inches, museum purchase in honor of Judith F. Dolkart, 2020.64, photo credit: Courtesy Alison Elizabeth Taylor and James Cohan Gallery, NY
Margaret Bourke-White, Looking Up Inside Sending Tower, N.B.C., Bellmore, L.I., 1933, gelatin silver print, 12 5/8 x 10 1/4 inches, museum purchase, 1934.51; Lavaughan Jenkins, Thought about you this morning, 2022, oil on panel, 30 1/8 x 22 5/8 x 2 1/2 inches, courtesy of the artist; Alison Elizabeth Taylor, The Breeder, 2010, marquetry: wood veneer and shellac, 56 x 45 inches, Des Moines Art Center Permanent Collections; Purchased with funds from the Ellen Pray Maytag Madsen Sculpture Acquisition Fund, 2011.6, photo credit: Courtesy Alison Elizabeth Taylor and James Cohan Gallery, NY
