BENNINGTON — Bennington College presents a visual arts lecture by Ari Salka on Nov. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Tishman Lecture Hall.
Salka is a Seattle-born, Los Angeles-based artist working in writing, drawing, and painting. Salka holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Drawing from UCLA and a Bachelor of Fine arts degree in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They studied at the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art and received the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship. Salka has completed residencies at the Ox Bow School of Art in 2015 and 2013, as well as the Silver Arts Residency Social Justice & Activism.
Their solo exhibition, It Stands to Reason, Joy Still Exists, opened this past May at Euclid Gallery, to critical acclaim.
“I paint self-portraits of my trans body, representing current and past selves,” Salka said in a release. “These bodies, these people, and sometimes lovers of past selves, are constantly shifting, through rebirths, enmeshing, while also differentiating from one another. Ghosts from the past emerge from earthly forms, signifying dysphoric rebirth and resurrection. Water is both weighted and buoyant, and the presence of sutures straddle fragility and strength. The self is oftentimes lost in translation, shifting in and out of differentiation from oneself to another version of self. Through repetition, expansiveness, and reclusiveness, my work battles distinctions between celebration and dismay.”
For more information, visit bennington.edu/events/2023-11-28/visual-arts-lecture-ari-salka.
