Jessica Straus: Packing for Mars

Black humor, longing, and regret are at play in Jessica Straus’s exhibition Packing for Mars, on view at Boston Sculptors Gallery April 4 – May 5, 2024. Straus looks forward with dread to a future when humans must flee a devastated Earth to settle on far flung, arid worlds. Yet, the artist is not packing gear for survival in a desolate landscape but, rather, offering poignant reminders of what has been left behind. Masterfully carved wooden figures stand-in for everyman and everywoman as they gaze longingly earthward from the moon, Mars and the star fields. Fragile hand-sewn earth spheres reveal vulnerability in their delicate stitching. In a particularly poignant series, Straus whittles plant specimens from her native New Hampshire, transforming them from humble grasses into botanical treasures. Packing for Mars looks both backward and forward in time, as we each contemplate the preciousness of the environment we love and on which we all depend.

Jessica Straus has exhibited widely at venues including DeCordova Museum, Fuller Craft Museum, Danforth Museum, Sculpture Center in Ohio, New Britain Museum of American Art in CT, Qorikancha Museum in Peru, and ArtTerritoire in France. In the summer of 2024, Straus will mount a solo exhibition at the Brattleboro Museum in VT, and her work will be featured at the Jewish Museum in Portland, ME.

Jessica Straus: Packing for Mars runs concurrently with a “Off Center” of Marilu Swett.

First Fridays

April 5 & May 3, 5 - 8:30pm

Artist’s Reception

Saturday, April 13, 2:30 – 5pm

Artists’ Talks 2:30 – 3pm

Artist Meet & Greets

April 6, 20 & 28, 11 – 5pm

May 4, 11 – 5pm

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