Classic Beauty: 21st-Century Artists on Ancient [Greek] Form

Classic Beauty: 21st-Century Artists on Ancient [Greek] Form is a group exhibition that looks at how and why contemporary artists replicate or carry forward methods and aesthetics of Ancient Greece. The exhibition traces artists’ interest in history, archaeology, and visual research that redefines iconic Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic forms, including those expressed through post-Greco-Roman aesthetic lenses of successive eras and geographies.

New and commissioned works appropriate and manipulate Classical antiquity as it visually descends through not only through Gothic, Renaissance, Neo-Classical, Art Deco and other Euro-centric art historical periods, but also as it is influenced by and manifested in the non-Western art histories of the Middle East and northern Africa.

Featuring projects consisting of drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics and architectural objects, Classic Beauty both homages and challenges the truthfulness of the visual legacy of major periods and styles of Ancient Greek art—Geometric, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic—especially as they are repurposed in modern Western culture.

Artists include Robert Andrade, Daniel Baird, Lakela Brown, Matthew Craven, Vivian Greven, Molly Kaderka, Lucy Kim, Kirstin Lamb, Shari Mendelson, David Ross Harper and Ruby Sky Stiler.

Curated by Jamilee Lacy.