8/18/20
NORTH ADAMS, MA—MCLA Berkshire Cultural Center’s Gallery 51 will present a new body of work by artist-in-residence Genevieve Gaignard, titled “A Long Way From Home,” and curated by BCRC Director Erica Wall, beginning with a virtual opening reception at 5 p.m. on August 27. Gaignard’s work will be on display until December 7, 2020. This is the first exhibition to come out of MCLA’s Artist Laboratory Residency, and will kick off the gallery’s public reopening.
“‘A Long Way From Home’ is a practice of an artist who understands her form and knows how to use it,” writes Dr. Taryn Jordan, Dr. Taryn D. Jordan CFD Postdoctoral Fellow in Women’s Studies at Colgate University, in the exhibition text. “In these trying times, her persistent question ‘are we there yet?’ tied to a desire for home that is welcome to all speaks to a historical frustration that continues to linger in the present. Her work is an invitation to break the violent repetitions that anti-blackness, poverty, patriarchy, and homophobia beget and rebuild home anew.”
“Known for her works that explore class, race, and gender, Gaignard renders her interior world radically exterior,” Jordan writes. “She accomplishes this exteriorization by reproducing a home space to question the repetitions of the past in the present. Home again in rural mill town Massachusetts, Gaignard is confronted with all the ways her artistic migration has changed her and how the events of the world put into perspective the contradictions of her hometown. She seeks the sights and sounds of home. She longs for another feel, another place, a different space. Gaignard longs for a different place to rest during the historical and political turbulence of COVID-19 and the reemergence of Black Lives Matter protests in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.”
To register for the virtual opening, visit https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMrc-isqT0iHteK56T-4kQkzP4c0QQLUr9l.
As Gallery 51’s first in-person exhibit since the COVID-19 pandemic pushed MCLA’s campus, and BCRC, to remote formats, guests can view the exhibit from noon-2 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and by appointment from noon-4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Social distancing protocols will be followed, and guests are required to wear masks and gloves. No more than 5-6 individuals will be permitted in the gallery at the same time.
For more information, visit http://www.mcla.edu/About_MCLA/area/bcrc/mcla-gallery-51/.
About BCRC:
MCLA’s Berkshire Cultural Resource Center (BCRC) provides opportunities, resources, and support to the Northern Berkshire Community. BCRC brings together the Northern Berkshire , MCLA and greater Creative Communities through its cultural programming including: MCLA Gallery 51, Downstreet Art, B-Hip, and MCLA Presents! We will promote, facilitate, and encourage a dialogue in order to foster a sustainable creative community. BCRC is a collaborative project of MCLA, MASS MoCA, and the City of North Adams.
