Portals & Passages: Works by Robert Freeman & Max Stern

Portals & Passages explores liminal space through the paintings of Robert Freeman and photographs by Max Stern. Both artists depict images sited on the threshold: windows, doorways, tunnels, tree-lined walkways, and other found openings. Such portals and passages function as transitional spaces that connect or separate worlds: interior and exterior, known and unknown, before and after. As such, these intermediary places can represent exciting possibilities or harrowing rupture. A simple door can be a portal to freedom or a formidable barrier, a symbol of hope and catharsis or estrangement and loss.   

Robert Freeman’s paintings explore the darker side of liminal experience. Inspired by a recent trip to Ghana, his work depicts the slave castles at Elmina and Cape Coast, fortresses used to hold enslaved Africans as part of the transatlantic slave trade. Freeman’s paintings attempt to process the grief and anger he felt after visiting the dungeons where his ancestors were held captive. His paintings portray Doors of No Return, the final passages through which enslaved people were taken from the castles to the slave ships bound for the Americas. These doors are potent symbols of the enslaved person’s ruptured experience – actual physical thresholds marking the boundary between the enslaved person’s life before and the brutal unknown life of slavery beyond.

Max Stern’s photographs present a multifaceted experience of liminal space, focusing on the potential of unknown possibilities. Stern is captivated by a still photograph’s ability to suggest or tell a story. His images of portals and passageways stimulate curiosity, inspiring myriad questions in the mind of the viewer: What is on the other side? Where does this lead? What will happen next? A glimpse of a hidden garden through a hedge or a group of figures silhouetted against a sunlit archway begs the viewer to fill in the blanks. While Stern’s photographs capture the tension and anticipation of intermediary space, it is with a thrill of wonder and curiosity for what lies beyond.

Join us for an opening reception with the artists, Thursday, March 14, 6-8pm.

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