The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art has unveiled two new exhibits for summer that you should visit.
One is called “Sofie Ramos: DEEP END” and features the work of California-based artist Sofie Ramos. Per the museum, Ramos “animates the inanimate and creates alternate existences for abandoned objects. Disguised as funhouses of color and cheer, Ramos’ work explores the unstable balance between comfort and anxiety and between safety and confinement in intimate spaces.”
For this show, Ramos has created site-specific installations featuring familiar objects. She often paints household objects and furniture, such as lamps and couches, but recreates them as imaginative characters. She “cleans” each object with paint, then piles and stacks them on top of another to create an immersive architectural moment.
According to the museum, she “encourages viewers to consider personal associations with the objects in her jam-packed installations. As she recreates and re-presents familiar objects, they become simultaneously strange and more likable than the original objects. Disguised as funhouses of color and cheer, Ramos’ work explores the unstable balance between comfort and anxiety and between safety and confinement in intimate spaces.”
The exhibition is on view through Sept. 5. Ramos is also doing a free virtual artist talk on Aug. 25 from 6-7 p.m.
The other new summer exhibit at BMoCA is “Grossly Affectionate” and it features the work of many different artists, including Kate Casanova, Cristóbal Cea, Daisy May Collingridge, Sam Grabowska, Mr. Hanimal, Jennifer Pettus and Estevan Ruiz. Per the museum, the show “explores hybridity and challenges binaries, such as human/nonhuman, hard/soft, and organic/synthetic. The seven exhibiting artists allude to or reference bodily form, while abstracting its appearance. The exhibition presents the idea that a body can be a host of things: an architectural structure, a virtual space, a landscape, and even a humorous costume.”
It’s also on view through Sept. 5. You can attend an in-person artist talk on July 14 from 6-7:30 p.m. and a virtual artist talk on July 28 from 6-7 p.m.
Together, the new summer exhibits are an ideal reason to visit the museum, especially if you haven’t been in a while.
“Visitors will initially experience the humor and explosive energy of Grossly Affectionate and DEEP END before uncovering surprising elements,” says BMoCA curator Pamela Meadows. “The artists embrace a fearless sense of play with materiality and create works that elicit a range of reactions—from joy and laughter to disbelief and aversion. The works on view talk to one another, creating a memorable experience and dialogue between the artists’ distinct practices.”
