FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: gallery102@gwu.edu

Lacuna Blossoms
MAY 5 - 20, 2022

Installation images of Adele Kenworthy’s MFA Thesis show Lacuna Blossoms.

Lacuna Blossoms dwells in the void filled by collective memories left in the wake of silence.

Adele Kenworthy (she/they) interweaves the fading practice of 꽃꽂이, floral arranging in Korea, erased during occupation and war — to reclaim and reimagine inheritance and counter memory existing in public spaces.

When their hands are in flowers, they think of their lost family left behind when their paternal grandfather fled the north before the war; their maternal grandmother who was in an arranged marriage to reduce her chance of becoming a comfort woman; their mother in law who saw her mother’s generation arrange flowers as part of their daily life she watched disappear as she grew older.

For the duration of the show, the artist will daily dismantle and reconstruct the living sculptures meant to bear witness the remnants of our shared humanity, and to flood all the silences between generations with those memories. Passersby are invited to bring a personal object imbued with memories they are ready to let go to give them a place to rest in the gallery.

BIOGRAPHY

Adele Kenworthy (she/they) is a socially engaged artist organizer who creates botanical interventions in public spaces. They explore how flowers have dyed, draped, and nourished social movements and daily reimagine what it means for socially engaged art to exist as an embodied practice of care. They were selected to be among WomenPhotograph’s first BIPOC visual storytellers open call in 2021. They have recently exhibited work for The Fearless Artist Popup Gallery at Art Basel Miami (2021) and TREEHOUSE at Brentwood Arts Exchange (2022). They are currently the artist-organizer in residence at the Washington Project for the Arts and are participating in their 41st annual auction. This summer she’s joining the 19th year of Transformer’s annual Exercises for Emerging Artists program and will also be supporting Monument Lab and their newly launched Re:Generation program – a nationwide participatory public art and history project. Her art practice and community is located on the traditional lands of the Piscataway and Nacotchtank (Anacostan) people, also referred to as Washington, D.C.

Gallery 102

Gallery 102 and the Student Exhibitions Committee (SEC) is committed to the exhibiting of contemporary art, including work from GW & Corcoran students, DC-area artists, and nationally recognized artists of all medium. The SEC consists of GW & Corcoran students -- undergraduate and graduate, majors and non-majors, artists and art historians -- who both develop innovative, original, and thought-provoking exhibitions throughout GW's campus and invite a select group of guest curators to present exhibitions each semester. The gallery provides practical curatorial experience to the student body. Students have the opportunity to exhibit work, curate shows, and install exhibitions.

The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design
801 22nd St NW
Smith Hall of Art
Washington DC 20052

202.994.6085
gallery102@gwu.edu
Hours: Mon-Fri 9-5

Note On Access & Land Acknowledgement

Gallery 102 is currently open to all approved GWorld card holders (students, faculty, and staff). Members of the public may view the exhibition through the gallery windows or gain access during scheduled programs and events. The gallery is housed within the Smith Hall of Art building, which includes an ADA entrance, and is located on the ground floor, requiring no steps. Bathroom facilities are available; however, gender inclusive bathrooms are located across the street in the Science & Engineering Hall, as well as the University Student Center nearby.

Gallery 102 acknowledges that it resides on the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Piscataway and Anacostan peoples, who have served as stewards of the region for generations.