exhibitions

Talk Back Chapter Two: Collection

Christina A. West + Meg Lionel Murphy

August 29, 2024 – February 16, 2025

The "Talk Back" exhibition series connects the Museum's early beginnings with contemporary artists' studio practices, providing an insightful view of art's evolution and the Allis family's homesteading.

"Talk Back Chapter 2: Collection" integrates permanent collection objects, such as swords and death masks, with painting, photography, sculpture, and video art. Sculptor and lens-based artist Christina A. West creates nude, plaster male figures to challenge the patriarchal male gaze, while painter Meg Lionel Murphy uses her art to depict a dreamworld where suffering transforms feminine bodies into formidable forms, allowing their pain to be seen, felt, and acknowledged. Both artists' figurative works address the lack of representation of female artists in the collection and resist the objectification of submissive, feminine bodies in art. "Talk Back Chapter 2: Collection" returns agency to artists, giving them free will to tease and reclaim stories in art history from around the world. 

This series illustrates one of the approaches our current staff is taking to decolonize the Museum's history and better reflect the communities we serve.