Cultural Truth: Conflict and Empathy
From March 22to April 29, Boston University School of Theology will display an art exhibit of cultural objects by Lynne Allen, the current dean ad interim and professor of arts at the BU College of Fine Arts. Allen traces her heritage six generations back to Ita ta Win (Wind Woman), depicted in a digital print piece in the exhibit, and says that every matriarch in her family has been a member of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
In an essay about Allen’s recent work, Nature Morte, Lynne Cooney writes that the collection includes various art forms and techniques “ranging from richly layered prints … exquisitely composed photogravures … and multiples of fabricated miniature glass and resin objects.” Cooney is the artistic director of the Boston University Art Galleries.
Capturing her Sioux heritage, Allen provides symbolic and sentimental objects to illustrate historical identities. The objects and work, as Allen describes, depict “the difference between what is true about our collective history and what is imagined.” Chalk-inked packing blankets, carborundum etchings, and digital print pieces bring beautifully illustrated context to the story of Allen’s heritage.
A reception for the exhibit will be held on Wednesday, April 6 at 5:30pm at 745 Commonwealth Ave, B23-B24 in Boston.
Lynne Allen Bio:
Lynne Allen is currently Dean ad interim of the College of Fine Arts at Boston University, having come to BU as a Professor and Director of the School of Visual Arts in 2006. From 1989-2006 she was Professor of Art at Rutgers; Director of the Brodsky Center (2000-2006); and Associate Director (1989-2000). She was Master Printer and Educational Director at Tamarind Institute where she ran the Professional workshop (1983-1987).
Allen exhibits nationally and internationally, and has been awarded many residencies and fellowships, including two Fulbright Scholarships, one to the U.S.S.R (1990) and one in Jordan (2004-05). Her work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art Library, the New York Public Library, New York; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, among others.