EXPEDITION Comes to Brattleboro Museum and Art Center
EXPEDITION Comes to Brattleboro Museum and Art Center
. . . and brings actor/artist Matt Dillon to Vermont
Hollywood came to Brattleboro, Vermont recently, but there’s more to the story. The tale of the creation of EXPEDITION, the recently opened exhibition at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (BMAC), is a serendipitous meander with more than one connection to the Upper Valley.
It started in 2019 when New York-based painter John Newsom dropped into BMAC and was captivated by its historic railroad station vibe. He traveled that same day to the Upper Valley’s Hall Art Foundation in Reading VT for a meeting of various museum directors, curators and artists, where he encountered BMAC’s Director Danny Lichtenfeld. Newsom’s head was rich with the idea of putting together an exhibition centered around the theme of travel; he pitched the idea to Lichtenfeld and started reeling off names of potential artists.
“As I recall, John’s vision for EXPEDITION was nearly fully formed from the start,” said Lichtenfeld. “He rattled off the names of most of the artists he hoped to include — an exciting, diverse group, many of whom had never shown in Vermont before. He said the exhibit would depict aspects of venturing into unknown lands and territories, and I was sold. He had tapped into one of the things I love most about art and museums — and train stations, for that matter — their ability to transport us to new realms.”
As it turned out, our story developed a satisfying Hollywood twist: actor and filmmaker (and visual artist) Matt Dillon is one of the 17 artists whose works constitute the exhibition; this is the first time Mr. Dillon’s work has appeared in a museum. Of art and travel, he commented: “For me, stepping into the studio is a journey into the unknown. The studio can be my kitchen counter, a rooftop in Puglia, or the back of an airplane barf bag . . . but mostly it’s upstairs in the back of an old church in New York City. I tend to create problems that are unsolvable. The potential for failure is necessary. There is always more to discover in the mess.” Dillon, pictured above, attended the opening of EXPEDITION at BMAC in mid-June.
One of the other EXPEDITION artists, Ouatarra Watts, brings our story once again back to the Upper Valley. In 2004, the Côte d’Ivoire-born Watts was a featured artist at a Hood Museum exhibition called CROSSING CURRENTS: The Synergy of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Ouattara Watts. (An aside: at the Hood exhibition, Mr. Watts was generous about my halting French.) Regarding the current BMAC exhibition, Watts wrote: “My vision is not limited to a country or a continent. It goes beyond borders and everything that can be found on a map. I paint the cosmos.”
EXPEDITION opened on June 19 and continues until October 11, 2021. There are a number of related in-person and virtual programs in connection with this exhibition.
In addition to Dillon, Newsom, and Watts, the other artists included in EXPEDITION are Donald Bachler, André Butzer, Ann Craven, Inka Essenhigh, Torben Giehler, April Gornik, Andy Hope 1930, Richard Jacobs, Michael Kagan, John McAllister, Erik Parker, Richard Pettibon, Alexis Rockman, and Wendy White.
Founded in 1972, the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center presents rotating exhibits of contemporary art, complemented by lectures, artist talks, film screenings, and other public programs. BMAC is open Wednesday-Sunday, 10-4. Admission is on a “pay-as-you-wish” basis. Located in historic Union Station in downtown Brattleboro, at the intersection of Main Street and Routes 119 and 142, the Museum is wheelchair accessible. For more information, call 802-257-0124 or visit brattleboromuseum.org
(Artist quotes courtesy of BMAC)
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.