Telling Stories: Reframing the Narratives

About The Publication

Essays by David Pagel and David Scott Kastan. Introduction by Terrie Sultan. Texts by Christopher French, David Scott Kastan, David Pagel, Savannah Petrick and Terrie Sultan. Managing Editor: Alicia G. Longwell.

First published in 2020 by the Parrish Art Museum.

224 pages

The topic of narrative has become critically important in contemporary thought as the relentless onslaught of information—real and fake—provides little time for judgement of what is true and valid. At the same time, control over what stories are told, and who can tell them, plays out in every sphere: political, societal, and cultural. These questions are now informing the visual arts, as artists present profound ways of thinking about the relationship between truth and power. The artists represented in Telling Stories—new voices telling new stories—create work that is driven by a narrative that is self-reflective and welcoming of outside input. Filled with immediate, direct, and intimate visual information—with references from K-Pop to Native American history to Ancient Greece to pop culture—these distinct narratives animate the artist’s experiences, raise questions, and invite interpretation.

Artists include JooYoung Choi (born 1982, Seoul, South Korea); Jeremy Dennis (born 1990, Southampton, New York); Jeffrey Gibson (born 1972, Colorado Springs, Colorado); Elliott Hundley (born 1975, Greensboro, North Carolina); Candice Lin (born 1979, Concord, Massachusetts); Mary McCleary (born, 1951, Houston, Texas); and Jim Shaw (born 1952, Midland, Michigan).