Curator & Artist Talk: In the Company of Still Life with Alex Cohen, Clara Weishahn, and Gwen Strahle

Join us for a conversation with In the Company of Still Life Curators Alex Cohen and Clara Weishahn and artist Gwen Strahle.

In the Company of Still Life explores the complex and enduring relationship between humans and objects through still-life paintings, prints, drawings, collage, sculpture, ceramics, photography, and found objects. Capturing the ordinary and extraordinary, in turns eternal and ephemeral, still lifes tell our stories by proxy, becoming vessels for presence and time. Work from the 1800’s to the present day by 40 artists from 10 countries is displayed in a series of distinct rooms inspired by homes, studios, and architectural spaces encountered and imagined by the curators. Visitors are welcomed into a space inspired by the specificity and intimacy of still life.

Alex and Clara live in Newtown, Pennsylvania. Cohen is a painter, frame-maker, and teacher who studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He exhibits his paintings and frames across the U.S. and internationally. Weishahn studied theater at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, and worked for over 15 years as a performer and director in the Pacific Northwest, New England, and mid-Atlantic regions. She is a floral designer and flower grower. Together, Clara and Alex curate Art at Kings Oaks, a biennial group exhibition of international artists at Kings Oaks farm in Newtown. An 1839 barn, a 20th-century stone chapel, and the surrounding gardens and landscape provide unique and welcoming spaces to encounter art.

Gwen is a painter living and working in northeast Connecticut. She teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design and is an artist with the Nancy Divine Gallery in Rhode Island. Strahle has received several awards, including the Connecticut Artist Fellowship, the Purchase Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and an Honorarium from the Drawing Center. Strahle earned her MFA from Yale University in 1983.

This curator talk was previously scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 22, and was rescheduled due to the blizzard. Strahle was previously scheduled to give a Tiny Talk on Sunday, March 8. The trio will come together for a conversation on the McDonnell Theater stage. We hope to see you there!