Running through January 19th, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Arts (BMoCA), invites the public to two new, stunning exhibits. The first, Texas-based artist, Adriana Corral’s Unearthed / Desenterrado, an exhibition co-produced with Black Cube Nomadic Museum.
This exhibit is as much a sculpture showcase as it is a deeper think-piece into histories and narratives at the US-Mexico border. The multi-award-winning artist has used her medium to explore themes of loss and erasure to drive a wider conversation of human rights violations. Most striking in her work is the artists’ use of personally gathered data and historic archives to create a larger narrative, encouraging audiences to connect with the subject matter far after they have left the museum in an attempt to memorialize these histories.
The rigorously researched histories culminate into works such as the large scale cotton flag, once seen from both sides of the US-Mexico border, flanked by Golden and Bald eagles, a gesture to raise awareness of the longest-running foreign worker’s program in the US, The Bracero Program, among other works.
The second is a solo exhibit, Folding and Thrusting, featuring sculpture and photographic works by Gretchen Marie Schaffer. Schaffer creates conversation by using size, evoking natural elements, and her own body to ask the viewer questions about our own relation to the natural world. In addition to a large sculptural rock, Schaefer uses perception and abstraction to challenge audiences about our relationship to power; a massive boulder installation reminds us of our size, especially when contrasted to the mountains that surround, a reminder that even the immovable is ever-changing.
Schaffer brings the outdoors, in. Have you been hiding under a rock? is made literal with this larger-than-life installation, asking viewers to pay attention to how we interact with our place among the geology.
Says Cortney Lane Stell, guest curator at BMoCa, of both works, “Both are really drawn to materiality…or the psychological aspects of material.”
The BMoCA offers memberships at different levels, beginning at $35, for individuals, families, or those looking to bolster the museum year-round with a “Philanthropist” level membership. For $35, a “Catalyst” membership is a classic gift for the art-observer and supporter in your life. This membership includes year-round entry, a free guest pass, exhibit previews (and more!). Stell encourages audiences to spend time with each exhibit to truly remind us of the “poetic power of contemporary art.”
For anyone who feels committed to the museum’s mission of open-dialogue between artist and community, as well as the noble pursuit of contemporary art, membership is an ideal holiday-season gift.