Past Exhibitions 2022

Parallax: Framing the Cosmos

Lisa Beck, Why is Anything, 2019, collaged painted muslin, crayon on painted burlap with cut out over acrylic paint and crushed aluminum pan sewn on canvas, courtesy of the artist and Nathalie Karg Gallery

Abelardo Morell, Book of Stars, 1994, gelatin silver print, 20 1/8 x 24 inches, The Jack Shear Collection of Photography at the Tang Teaching Museum, 2015.1.465

Josiah McElheny, Seven Observations for June Tyson, 2019, acrylic on board with inset, hand-formed and polished micromosaic glass, black mirror, ash frame, 40 ½ x 53 ½ x 2 1/8 inches, courtesy of the artist and James Cohan Gallery

Sharon Harper, Moon Studies and Star Scratches, No. 5: June - September, 2004, Saratoga Springs, New York; Middlesex, Vermont; Johnson, Vermont; Eden Mills, Vermont; Greensboro, North Carolina, 2004, luminage print, 40 x 50 inches, courtesy of the artist and Rick Wester Fine Art, New York

Installation view, Parallax: Framing the Cosmos, Tang Teaching Museum, 2022, photo by Mindy McDaniel

Christopher Bucklow, Guest (NV), 1997, unique multiple aperture pinhole photograph, dye-destruction process, 37 7/8 x 28 7/8 inches, The Jack Shear Collection of Photography at the Tang Teaching Museum, 2018.38.47

Johann Palisa and Max Wolf, Celestial chart, 1904, gelatin silver print on paper with letterpress print, 14 1/8 x 10 ¼ inches, The Jack Shear Collection of Photography at the Tang Teaching Museum, 2015.1.21

Anna Von Mertens, The Day Without Yesterday, June 18, 1925, Mount Wilson Observatory, California, 2008, hand-stitched, hand-dyed cotton, 56 ¼ x 103 ¼ inches, Tang Teaching Museum collection, purchased with funding from the Susan Rabinowitz Malloy ‘45 Endowed Fund for Emerging Artists, in honor of the Tang Teaching Museum’s former Dayton Director John Weber on the occasion of the museum’s 20th anniversary, 2020, 2019.21

Installation view, Parallax: Framing the Cosmos, Tang Teaching Museum, 2022, photo by Mindy McDaniel

NASA,41-B Onboard Scene of EVA, 1984, color photograph, 7 5/8 x 9 1/8 inches, The Jack Shear Collection of Photography at the Tang Teaching Museum, 2020.31.97.268

Installation view, Parallax: Framing the Cosmos, Tang Teaching Museum, 2022, photo by Mindy McDaniel

Parallax describes how an object appears to change position when viewed from different vantage points, as in the viewfinder of a camera or when a star is seen from two different places in Earth’s orbit. As an astronomical term and a metaphor for shifting perspectives, parallax reminds us that no two cultures, nations, or minds perceive the apparently “universal” universe in the same way. Parallax: Framing the Cosmos presents outer space as a backdrop for understanding ourselves, interrogating both individual quests for unique places in space and culturally specific myths, including the US nationalist fantasy of conquering the moon and stars on behalf of “all mankind.” The exhibition offers interdisciplinary insights into and meditations on the particular and the universal, the past and the future, the eternal and the mutable, the intimate and the infinite, encouraging us to consider our own personal, national, emotional, and creative selves in the context of a greater universe.

Parallax presents conceptual, experimental, and documentary photography; textiles; scientific and artistic prints and drawings; sculpture; and painting, including many recent acquisitions to the Tang collection that will be displayed publicly for the first time. With a focus on the United States’ relationship to space travel—explored through hundreds of NASA press photographs—the exhibition will further our understandings of identity formation in relation to the cosmos and suggest ways of seeing and behaving differently in the universe we share.

Parallax: Framing the Cosmos is curated by Dayton Director Ian Berry, Skidmore Associate Professor of English Maggie Greaves, and Associate Curator Rebecca McNamara, and is supported by the Friends of the Tang.

Parallax Iterations

There are two iterations of Parallax: Framing the Cosmos. The show was re-installed with new works on January 28, 2023. This page will serve as an archive of these iterations and the programming that activated the space over two semesters.

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Spring 2023

Artists on View

January 28 – June 18, 2023

Edward Emerson Barnard, Lisa Beck, Christopher Bucklow, Vija Celmins, Russell Crotty, Dorothy Dehner, Sharon Harper, Prosper Mathieu Henry and Paul Pierre Henry, Josiah McElheny, Abelardo Morell, NASA, Michael Oatman, Demetrius Oliver, Alice O'Malley, Johann Palisa and Max Wolf, Dario Robleto, Cara Romero, Pierre Salet, Carrie Schneider, Alisa Sikelianos-Carter, Michelle Stuart, Toshiko Takaezu, Mildred Thompson, Unrecorded artists, Anna Von Mertens, Cullen Washington Jr.

Fall 2022

Artists on View

October 1, 2022 – January 27, 2023

Edward Emerson Barnard, Lisa Beck, Christopher Bucklow, Vija Celmins, Russell Crotty, Dorothy Dehner, Sharon Harper, Prosper Mathieu Henry and Paul Pierre Henry, Jed Lind, Robert Longo, Giorgia Lupi, Josiah McElheny, Abelardo Morell, NASA, Demetrius Oliver, Alice O’Malley, Johann Palisa and Max Wolf, Katie Paterson, Pierre Salet, Sun Ra, Dario Robleto, Carrie Schneider, Alisa Sikelianos-Carter, Toshiko Takaezu, Mildred Thompson, Fred Tomaselli, Unrecorded artists, Anna Von Mertens, Cullen Washington Jr.

Fall Highlights

Performances

Oct 1, 2022, 2 PM

Mapping the Stars: Students Perform Selections from Silent Sky

Student actors perform in the gallery.

Talks

Oct 6, 2022, 6:30 PM

Dunkerley Dialogue with Sumita Chakraborty and Maggie Greaves

Join us for a discussion with an artist and Skidmore faculty member.

Family Programs

Oct 15, 2022, 2 PM

Celebration Weekend Family Saturday: Celestial Collages

We will make space-inspired spirograph collages!

Performances

Dec 6, 2022, 6 PM

Parallax Rhythms

DJ sets and live performances!

Workshops

Dec 8, 2022, 3:45 PM

Poetry of Parallax

Write poetry in Parallax: Framing the Cosmos

Anchor name: Dunkerley Dialogue Video

Dunkerley Dialogue with Sumita Chakraborty and Maggie Greaves

Poet Sumita Chakraborty and Skidmore Associate Professor of English Maggie Greaves, a co-curator of the exhibition “Parallax: Framing the Cosmos,” discuss the poet’s creative and scholarly work on the intersections of outer space, ecology, race, and gender in a Dunkerley Dialogue on Thursday, October 6, 2022.

Exhibition Name

Parallax: Framing the Cosmos

Exhibition Type

Group Exhibitions

Faculty Curated

Place

Wachenheim Gallery

Dates

Oct 1, 2022 - Jun 18, 2023

Curators

Parallax: Framing the Cosmos is curated by Dayton Director Ian Berry, Skidmore Associate Professor of English Maggie Greaves, and Associate Curator Rebecca McNamara.

Artists

Edward Emerson Barnard, Lisa Beck, Christopher Bucklow, Vija Celmins, Russell Crotty, Dorothy Dehner, Sharon Harper, Prosper Mathieu Henry and Paul Pierre Henry, Jed Lind, Robert Longo, Giorgia Lupi, Josiah McElheny, Abelardo Morell, NASA, Michael Oatman, Demetrius Oliver, Alice O'Malley, Johann Palisa and Max Wolf, Katie Paterson, Pierre Salet, Sun Ra, Dario Robleto, Cara Romero, Carrie Schneider, Alisa Sikelianos-Carter, Michelle Stuart, Toshiko Takaezu, Mildred Thompson, Fred Tomaselli, Unrecorded artists, Anna Von Mertens, Cullen Washington Jr.