Where:
Boston Sculptors Gallery
486 Harrison Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02118
Admission:
FREE
Categories:
Art
Event website:
bostonsculptors.com
Black humor, longing, and regret are at play in Jessica Straus’s exhibition Packing for Mars, on view at Boston Sculptors Gallery April 4 – May 5, 2024. Straus looks forward with dread to a future when humans must flee a devastated Earth to settle on far flung, arid worlds. Yet, the artist is not packing gear for survival in a desolate landscape but, rather, offering poignant reminders of what has been left behind. Masterfully carved wooden figures stand-in for everyman and everywoman as they gaze longingly earthward from the moon, Mars and the star fields. Fragile hand-sewn earth spheres reveal vulnerability in their delicate stitching. In a particularly poignant series, Straus whittles plant specimens from her native New Hampshire, transforming them from humble grasses into botanical treasures. Packing for Mars looks both backward and forward in time, as we each contemplate the preciousness of the environment we love and on which we all depend.
Jessica Straus has exhibited widely at venues including DeCordova Museum, Fuller Craft Museum, Danforth Museum, Sculpture Center in Ohio, New Britain Museum of American Art in CT, Qorikancha Museum in Peru, and ArtTerritoire in France. In the summer of 2024, Straus will mount a solo exhibition at the Brattleboro Museum in VT, and her work will be featured at the Jewish Museum in Portland, ME.
Jessica Straus: Packing for Mars runs concurrently with a “Off Center” of Marilu Swett.
First Fridays
April 5 & May 3, 5 - 8:30pm
Artist’s Reception
Saturday, April 13, 2:30 – 5pm
Artists’ Talks 2:30 – 3pm
Artist Meet & Greets
April 6, 20 & 28, 11 – 5pm
May 4, 11 – 5pm
Saturday, Dec 14, 2024 12:00p
Perrin Theater, Keiter Center for the Performing Arts
Saturday, Dec 07, 2024 8:30a
Crane Estate
Saturday, Dec 14, 2024 10:15a
Hammond Castle
Saturday, Dec 07, 2024 11:00a
Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre
Saturday, Dec 07, 2024 5:30p
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum