A Brief History of the Future

31 May - 3 August 2024
Claire Oliver Gallery is pleased to present A Brief History of the Future, a special group exhibition of works by gallery artists BK Adams, Barbara Earl Thomas, Stan Squirewell, LaNia Roberts, and Carolyn Mazloomi. Expressing themselves through painting, paper cuts, glasswork, found photography, and quilting, the artists in this presentation are time benders—wielding their practices in order to explore the interdependent and evolving dimensions of past, present, and future. With their own unique variations on the choreography of reflection and anticipation, these artists prove that chronological systems of time are insufficient to address the compounding complexities of and ever-shifting revelations about identity, race, gender, family, nature, culture, and politics. Calling on ancestral, generational, and societal wisdom, this show gives equal importance to those histories we bring into focus and those futures we attempt to influence. As Octavia Butler expressed in her 1993 novel Parable of the Sower, “All that you touch / You Change / All that you change / Changes You / The only lasting truth / Is Change…” A Brief History of the Future will be on view at Claire Oliver Gallery, May 31 - August, 2024.