Lisa Beane: Karma
Andrea Douglas, Curator
Lisa Beane’s new exhibition Karma is comprised of 10 paintings and one artist book; all of which were completed over the course of the this year. Vibrantly colored images that recall the innocence of childhood are paired with those that point to darker, more sinister historic moments. The result is a frenetic dialogue between image and viewer. Beane’s paintings suggests the heightened anxiety that pervades the times in which we live. In the catalogue that accompanies the show, essayist Sarah Sargeant opines that Beane interrogates “fascism, national socialism, and terrorism.” She goes on to indicate that the artist’s paintings are partly inspired by the brutal and violent death of Farkhunda Malikzada in 2015. The Afghan woman was beaten to death, her body burned, and thereafter thrown into the river. Sargeant writes “Beane saw in the outcry here in the states, blatant hypocrisy and convenient amnesia. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that we were doing much the same thing.”
Lisa Beane’s Karma gives us the ability to see how far we have come and how far we have yet to go.
The catalogue is $15 and available for purchase in the Alumni Room museum shop and coffee bar.
