Featuring ocean planktons and corals made of pigmented paper pulp, Michelle Samour’s “Blue,” covering an entire 30-foot wall, and Ifé Franklin’s “Ancestor Slave Cabin” from “The Indigo Project” are like being greeted by old friends as I enter the Cantor Gallery at Holy Cross to view its “Blue Profundity: Contemporary Artists Revisit a Color” exhibition. The five-artist show, intended to connect the historical timeline of the use of blue in art, was curated by Gallery Director Lauren Szumita.
“It was important to me that the color blue was a necessary factor in the conceptual understanding of the work, and not incidental,” Szumita explained. “I was looking for artists who explored the layered histories and long-running traditions associated with the color, like blue-and-white porcelain, indigo, and the association of sadness with the color blue.”
Each work is fascinating in its own right, with their meaning and background enhanced by labels written by Holy Cross faculty and local curators, which help contextualize the historical frameworks behind them.