Call & Response II Artist Talk

Join us for our first in person artist talk in over a year!

Glimpse the Museum’s permanent collection through the fresh eyes of regional artists working in an array of media, and learn more about their selections and evocative responses. Inspired by the thought provoking works created for Call & Response last fall, Senior Curator Francine Weiss invited six regional artists for a second Call & Response exhibition. All six artists, Sophia Ainslie, Anna Kristina Goransson, Maxime Jean Lefebvre, Joel Orloff, Destiny S. Palmer and Coral Woodbury, will speak briefly on their collection choice, the work they created for the exhibition, and how it connects to their broader studio practice.

The talk will be followed by informal Q&A with artists in the galleries.

Free with Museum Admission. (Members Free). 
Space is limited. Reservations recommended.

Thumbnail image: Anna Kristina Goransson, Caution Love (detail), 2021, silkscreen on paper, 14.5′ x 9.5′
Hero image: Sophia Ainslie, Apple not included (detail), 2021, flashe and acrylic on polypropylene, 52″ x 52″

Sophia Ainslie
Sophia Ainslie was born in South Africa and participated in residencies in Africa, the UK and the US before receiving her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts, in Boston. She has received grants from the Gund and Sugarman Foundations in the US, and the African Arts Trust and Hamlyn Foundation in the UK. Residencies attended include NIROX Foundation and Thupelo International in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa; Thapong International in Botswana, Southern Africa; Triangle Arts Association and ART/OMI in NY; and Gasworks in London. She attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and was awarded the Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship for Painting. Ainslie is represented by Gallery NAGA, Boston, and maintains a studio in Somerville, MA.

Anna Kristina Goransson
Kristina is originally from Sweden and moved to the United States in 1985 and finally became a citizen in 2016. Kristina’s artistic background includes a BFA in Furniture from RISD and an MFA from University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth in Fibers. She spent time at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Colorado and Haystack, Maine to further her artistic endeavors. She had the honor of being an artist-in-residence at Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland, OR and in Paducah, KY through the Paducah Arts Alliance. Most of her work the past thirteen years have been sculptural, felted installations and wall work. Kristina continues to create work and teach around the Boston area.

Maxime Jean Lefebvre
Maxime Jean Lefebvre was born and raised in France. He started experimenting with ceramics early on, and was brought to a lot of history museums as a youngster. After graduating from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Bourges, he moved to America to pursue his MFA in Printmaking at Rhode Island School of Design. Maxime is inspired by systems of power and his experience as a foreigner in America. Through his current body of ceramic work, he is exploring relationships between commerce, history and the everyday familiar. He is currently a resident in ceramics at the Steel Yard in Providence.

Joel Orloff
Joel Orloff is an animator in Providence, Rhode Island. He has led animation teams for a number of award-winning documentary projects, including Oren Rudavsky’s Witness Theater and  American Masters’ Unladylike2020, and other upcoming documentaries. He co-created, with Riley Thompson, the award-winning short film When Planets Mate, and his short animation, Guest, was shown at the 2020 Artspeaks Group Show at The Wurks in Providence.

Destiny S. Palmer
Palmer is trained as a painter but her work explores the intersections of painting, history and color, allowing it to blur the lines of painting, sculpture and installation. Her work investigates colonial American history as it relates to her own identity as black woman. Her paintings respond gesturally and the fabric works rely on materials to navigate conceptual ideas. While Palmer’s studio work is generated from personal histories, her public art is a reclamation of space. She has worked with various communities to create public art projects ranging from traditional murals to community engaged/lead mural to digitally created murals. Palmer has worked with MIT, Lifewtr, Saxby’s and Mural Arts Philadelphia. Her murals can be found at the Dorchester, Ma, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, PA and Omaha Ne.  Website: Destinypalmerstudio.com

Coral Woodbury
Coral Woodbury (b. 1971, NY) has long worked internationally, beginning with a residency in Italy with rosenclaire, her mentors for 30 years. She has been honored with a grant from the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities and in 2020 was a finalist for the Mother Art Prize (UK), the only international prize for artists with caretaking responsibilities. Her work has been shown at Opening Week of the 58th Venice Biennale, the Taragaon Museum in Kathmandu, Palazzo Barolo and Palazzo Reale in Italy, and in the unsanctioned #00Bienal de la Habana in Cuba. Woodbury is represented by Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Boston and HackelBury Fine Art, London.