This fall, Georgetown University Art Galleries has two new exhibitions on display until Dec. 8. “Around the Table” is a food-themed, multi-artist exhibition at the de la Cruz Gallery and “That Hand-Touch Sensibility” is a collection of work from multimedia artist Alex McQuilkin at the Spagnuolo Main Gallery. Both galleries can be found in Georgetown’s Walsh building.
Using multimedia,“Around the Table” focuses on the values of conversation, shared experience, and coming together through the community-centered act of breaking bread. Artists featured include Jennifer Wen Ma and Valeska Soares, with “interactive social convenings”—open discussion dinners—by Philippa Pham Hughes in collaboration with Thu Anh Nguyen.
“All of the artists are really engaging with social justice and that spirit of being involved within your community,” Emma McMorran (M ’22), exhibits and public engagement manager for Georgetown Art Galleries, said.
The exhibit, curated by historian Dr. Vesela Sretenović, was intentionally timed for the fall ahead of this year’s election. Sretenović brought the collection to Georgetown as part of her NONALIGNEDART Platform—art exhibitions, presentations, and programs focusing on the role of contemporary art in “engaging critical issues in art and culture of today.”
The pieces explore reflections on race, home, and belonging, and encourage defying divisions around the (dinner) table.
Soares’s featured piece, “Finale” (2013), is a collection of glassware, all containing unfinished alcoholic beverages. As the centerpiece of “Around the Table,” Soares illustrates the humanist nature of connections through intimate afterparties, with the leftover spirits representing unsaid and incomplete sentiments of humanity, left unshared in this environment.
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