Aesthetics of Loss

media release: Aesthetics of Loss is a collection of work by eight artists who have experienced the recent loss of friends and family members. Their studios became places for processing grief and understanding the vacuum of losing loved ones either suddenly or over a long period of illness. Caregiving, memory, loss, and the ultimate mystery of death are explored through painting, printmaking, fibers, ceramics, photography, installation, and video.

Representing grief in artwork is an attempt at understanding death and there is no one way to do it. Some artists utilize objects and clothing left behind by their loved ones and transform them into artworks, and others use ritual and natural materials as memorial or commemorative actions of grief and acceptance. In the work of artists in this exhibition, art is an unconscious survival barrier, a scrim that references something unimaginable in oblique, evocative, and moving ways. 

Together, Aesthetics of Loss is a survey of artworks that is a mediation of grief, where no one work is like the other, but collectively the works offer the viewer a space for healing and acceptance of the inevitable. 

Artists include EBTI, Jessica Meuninck-Ganger, Brianna L. Hernández,  Linda b. Marcus, Nirmal Raja, Jaymee Harvey Willms and Anders Zanichkowsky

Two exhibition related events will take place on Saturday, July 22.

First, from 3:30pm to 5:00pm, artists Anne Basting and Jessica Meunick Ganger will present Care Shower, a performance and exhibit inspired by the realization that there are no positive rituals to share knowledge and resources and shower support on people who are embarking on the transition to becoming a caregiver for an adult or elder.

Then, a reception for Aesthetics of Loss will be held from 5:00pm to 7:00pm.

Aug. 6: Anders Zanichkowsky will present a performance and memorial, for G, on Sunday, August 6. Doors will open shortly before 7:00, and the performance will begin promptly at 7:15pm. Free registration and attendance requirements can be found at Eventbrite.