Heavenly visions
Explore the cosmos and shimmering colors at ‘Dark Matter’ exhibit coming to Allentown Art Museum
Stargazing can be hypnotic. The universe is astonishing, from the smallest particles to the largest galaxies.
Starting next week, you can step inside the Allentown Art Museum to experience a few heavenly visions — interpreted through the eyes of the artist.
“Alteronce Gumby: Dark Matter” will be revealed on Oct. 29 in the museum’s upstairs galleries. Gumby — a Harrisburg native — explores formal, material, and conceptual complexity through paintings that reflect a profound fascination with the cosmos. The display runs through April 9, 2023.
According to museum curators, the exhibit (Gumby’s first museum solo show) was assembled mostly from private collections and includes large-format works. His early and more recent expressions incorporate shards of tempered glass, gemstones, and other unconventional materials. Some glow under black light. Each employs color as material and metaphor, deftly harnessing its subtle effects and rich tonal relationships.
The creations explore color’s capacity to create and convey meaning. By focusing on the power of color to signify, the artist’s practice provokes questions
about painting’s relation to larger cultural forces and gestures toward more fundamental issues of identity, agency, and invisibility.
Some works incorporate fluorescent minerals from the former Sterling Hill Mine in Ogdensburg,
New Jersey. Gallery ultraviolet lighting will allow visitors to appreciate the luminous colors of these shimmering minerals.
Gumby earned his BFA from Hunter College in 2013 and his
MFA in Painting & Printmaking from Yale School of Art in 2016. He resides in New York City.
His works have been featured in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Berlin, and Paris.
‘Dark Matter’ opening reception
Gumby will attend a member preview and reception from 5 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 28 at the museum.
The artist also will also lead a presentation/discussion Nov. 12 at the museum. For more information visit allentownartmuseum.org.
The “Dark Matter” exhibit is supported by the Nicola Vassell Gallery, the Bernard and Audrey Berman Foundation, and the Leon C. and June W. Holt Endowment. In-kind support is provided by the Sterling Hill Mining Museum.
Free admission
The museum’s move to free admission for all began in August and is funded through one of three final gifts from the Century Fund foundation and additional multiyear support from Lehigh Valley Health Network, City Center Allentown and J.B. and Kathleen Reilly.
The shift to free admission — one that the museum’s staff had researched for years — works hand-in-hand with the reconfiguration of reconfiguring the New American Galleries.
ALLENTOWN ART MUSEUM
Where: 31 N 5th St, Allentown
Gallery hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Thurs.-Sun. and 11 a.m.-8 p.m. on Third Thursdays
How much: Free
Info: allentownartmuseum.org