Animal Spirits & Ancient Rituals
Oct 5 – Nov 12, 2023
Gallery North, Setauket, NY
- Opening Reception, Saturday, October 7 • 5pm – 7pm
- Gallery North/Long Island Museum Tour and Demo, Sunday, October 15 • 12pm – 3pm
- ArTalk moderated by Lyn and David Pentecost, Saturday, November 4 • 3pm
Animal Spirits and Ancient Rituals is Kelynn Alder’s first solo exhibition at Gallery North. It features paintings, monoprints and drawings that reference Alder’s Mexican cultural heritage. Many of the paintings are from the artists’ personal experiences in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico during the Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festivities in Chamula, a town run entirely by the Tzotzil speaking Maya.
“Día de los Muertos is a celebration of both the living and the dead,” Alder states. “And the underlying theme of this work has much to do with the cycle of life and death, my reaching back to my ancestors and my rising consciousness of my own mortality.”
Each painting evokes the artist’s ancestral searching, yearnings and experiences, while also encouraging others to reflect upon their own ancestry and personal journeys. Alder’s prints feature the artist’s personal interpretation of La Lotería – a traditional Mexican board game – weaving it into Indigenous, political and religious iconography.
The daughter of an immigrant, Alder transports us to her inner visual world, while also offering important messages confronting the migrant crisis between the Mexican and U.S. border.
