For Immediate Release
February 3, 2025
CLARK ART INSTITUTE PRESENTS OPENING LECTURE
BY ARTIST MARIEL CAPANNA
Williamstown, Massachusetts—On Saturday, February 15 at 2 pm, the Clark Art Institute presents a talk by artist Mariel Capanna marking the opening of Mariel Capanna: Giornata, the newest public spaces installation at the Clark. This free lecture takes place in the Clark’s Manton Research Center auditorium.
Mariel Capanna (b. 1988, Philadelphia, where she lives and works) plays what she calls “games of remembering” as a way of reckoning with loss. Working from home videos and family slideshows, whose runtime is her constraint, the artist races to record fleeting memory images in oil paint. She scatters these flat, pastel forms like confetti across deep, atmospheric surfaces, creating compositions that are at once jubilant and wistful. For the Clark, Capanna presents two new, site-specific oil paintings as well as a monumental, two-sided fresco. The fresco process is also defined by time constraints: the term giornata has referred, since the Italian Renaissance, to the area of wet plaster that can be painted in a single day. Mariel Capanna: Giornata marks the artist’s first museum solo exhibition.
This year-long installation, free and open to the public, is organized by the Clark Art Institute and curated by Robert Wiesenberger, curator of contemporary projects.
Generous support for Mariel Capanna: Giornata is provided by Margaret and Richard Kronenberg.
Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 458 0524. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/events. Admission to the Clark is free January through March 2025.
ABOUT THE CLARK
The Clark Art Institute, located in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, is one of a small number of institutions globally that is both an art museum and a center for research, critical discussion, and higher education in the visual arts. Opened in 1955, the Clark houses exceptional European and American paintings and sculpture, extensive collections of master prints and drawings, English silver, and early photography. Acting as convener through its Research and Academic Program, the Clark gathers an international community of scholars to participate in a lively program of conferences, colloquia, and workshops on topics of vital importance to the visual arts. The Clark library, consisting of nearly 300,000 volumes, is one of the nation’s premier art history libraries. The Clark also houses and co-sponsors the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.
The Clark, which has a three-star rating in the Michelin Green Guide, is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Its 140-acre campus includes miles of hiking and walking trails through woodlands and meadows, providing an exceptional experience of art in nature. Galleries are open 10 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Sunday from September through June and daily in July and August. Admission is free to all from January through March and is $20 from March through December; admission is free year-round for Clark members, all visitors age 21 and under, and students with a valid student ID. Free admission is also available through several programs, including First Sundays Free; a local library pass program; and EBT Card to Culture. For information on these programs and more, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.
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