SAM Talks: Bethany Collins

Don't miss this special occasion to celebrate the 2023 Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Prize winner Bethany Collins.

The artist will give a talk from 6:30–7:30 pm followed by a reception with a cash bar from Shooby Doo Catering and tunes from DJ Faridaguyzzz. Doors open at 6 pm and the 3rd floor galleries will be open until 8:30 pm.

Tickets

$15

$10 SAM members & students with ID

Bethany Collins: At Sea

Concerned with what she has termed “the residue of language,” artist Bethany Collins critically examines American history and the nuance of racial and national identities. Collins’s talk will trace how processes of selective erasure can lead to exposure—using texts from the Western canon as case studies in historical and linguistic reinterpretation. Mirroring the cyclicality of musical refrains, Collins’s return to foundational texts reveals their unstable underpinnings and recurrent, resounding impacts. Drawing attention to hidden narratives, she will explore how language can transpose meaning across time, binding together fictionalized pasts and projected futures.

Bethany Collins (b. 1984) lives and works in Chicago, IL. Her multidisciplinary practice encompasses the mediums of drawing, sculpture, book arts, and sound installation. Collins has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including Accord, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University, AL (2024); America: A Hymnal, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA (2023); Evensong, Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (2021); and Chorus, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, MO (2019), among others. Her work is represented in the collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Birmingham Museum of Art, AL; The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY; Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, IL; and The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY, among others.

$15 General Admission

$10 SAM members & students with ID

Tickets include gallery access