THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY
Lobby Installation

Curated by Kristin Deady, Jenna Lucente, and Alexander Rosenberg

September 9 - December 31, 2022

OPENING EVENT: September 9, 2022 | 5 - 9 PM

ON ART: December 21, 2022 | 6 PM
Key Artist, David King

David King, Outliers, 2022, Wood and glass

Helen Lee and Alice Chau, Obverse/Reverse, 2021 (Ancestry)
This work re-imagines ancient Chinese cash coins in glass to speak to the value and complexity of what the artist refers to as Invisible-American, Transparent-American, or See-Through-American identity. The contemporary seal script characters roughly translate to: life, death, sound, and silence. English braille and four variants of Chinese braille translate these words into the tactile realm.

David King, 48 Ivanhoe (Sanguine), 2020 (Perspective)
48 Ivanhoe (Sanguine) is a record of the futile search for a particular hue associated with his mother. After her passing, King began the task of producing, in blown glass, a specific color to create a vessel for her ashes. Later the project manifested as a library of colors within the range of attempts in the shape of notable books on a shelf.

Madeline Rile Smith, Device for Opening Up, 2020 (Bodies)
A sensory amplification device which puts the wearer in a heightened state of vulnerability. It allows the wearer to sensorily engage with every aspect of their physical location, while also exposing them to potential risk. In a public setting, wearing the device suggests a heightened state of danger and contamination — but in a natural setting like the beach, it allows the wearer to “take it all in.”

Lobby Installation

For our Fall/Winter 2022 Season, The Delaware Contemporary presents Through a Glass, Darkly, in all of our main galleries occupying more than 6,000 square feet. Curated by three guest curators, Kristin Deady, Jenna Lucente, and Alexander Rosenberg, this museum-wide exhibition includes new and recent works by artists working with glass and glass-related materials and processes, exposing the material’s dual nature. Selected works engage the historical promise and power of the material to reveal and to bring clarity, while challenging viewers to acknowledge an inherent interconnectedness between enhancement and distortion. 

VIRTUAL GALLERY TOUR

Photo Credits: Dan Jackson