Just consider for a moment all that the group exhibition “From This Day Forward” at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art is asking viewers to digest while viewing multiple genres of art in various galleries:
In response to the 2020 global pandemic.
In response to the United States quarantine and individuals dealing with isolation.
In response to the Black Lives Matter, LGBTQIA + DACA movements.
In response to remote video communication in everyday life, access to technology and internet connection, access to food, money, and supplies.
In response to the world before the coronavirus/COVID-19.
In response to Humanity.
All of the works by the show’s eight artists invite contemplation tinged with a kind of profundity that only a hellish year like 2020 can evoke: where were we last year — physically, mentally and emotionally, how did we survive, how did we make things better, and where do we go from here.
“From This Day Forward,” guest-curated by Denver artist Tya Alisa Anthony, is one of the strongest shows I’ve seen at BMoCA, and definitely worth seeing before it closes May 31.
Hopefully, the slide show below will whet your interest in it. I spent the most time with the works by Paula Gasparini-Santos, Narkita Gold and Autumn T. Thomas, although that’s not to say that the other artists don’t equally rise to the challenge of commenting on salient issues. With Gasparini-Santos, I was struck by the way her large, thickly painted works combined abstraction and figuration, sometimes in diptychs. With Gold, I enjoyed seeing more of her “Black in Denver” series after viewing it at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center in Denver. And Thomas presents perhaps the strongest work of all: “Lift Every Voice” (2020), a wood and copper installation resembling wood chimes, in which each small block of the “chime” is engraved with the name of a victim of police violence. It’s both graceful and robust, and viewers are allowed to run their fingers along the pipes. Also excelling at installation art is Kenzie Sitterud, with “Us / Them” (2020), utilizing chains, tree trunks and metal eye hooks to make an unusable approximation of a swing-set. It’s meant to call up the unease of the queer community in attempting to navigate a heteronormative world. In my eyes, though, the work could resonate with anyone feeling like the Other.
If you see the show, please add your reactions to the comments area. All photos by Deborah Ross.
