Patricia Piccinini Discusses Her Work at the Frist Center, 4/13 & 14

On April 13 and 14 the Frist Center for the Visual Arts proudly welcomes artist Patricia Piccinini, who will travel from Australia for a public lecture and gallery conversation in which she will discuss her works in the exhibition Fairy Tales, Monsters, and the Genetic Imagination, currently on view in the Frist Center's Upper-Level Galleries through May 28, 2012. 

Piccinini will speak on Friday, April 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the Frist Center's Auditorium; this lecture will be free and open to the public. At 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 14, the artist will engage in a lively gallery conversation with Frist Center Chief Curator, Mark Scala, in the Frist Center's Upper-Level Galleries. Attendance at the gallery talk is free with the price of admission. As always, visitors ages 18 and younger are admitted free.

Piccinini will also present a public lecture on Monday, April 16 at 6:00 p.m. at the 21c Museum in Louisville, Ky. which features one of her works, Surrogate, in its collection. 

Renowned for her uncannily lifelike sculptures and videos, Piccinini seamlessly blends art, science, feminism and ethics to pose provocative questions about identity and empathy. Her sculptures in Fairy Tales, Monsters, and the Genetic Imagination comprise astonishingly realistic-looking creatures that appear to be mixtures of human and animal. "Patricia's vision is extraordinary," according to Scala, who organized the exhibition.  "While appealing for their stunning virtuosity, her works also elicit feelings of empathy, love, playfulness and tolerance. 

"They bring art, science and fantasy together to raise questions about the future of the body as we enter an age in which genetic engineering, stem cell research, advanced prosthetics, cloning and other medical breakthroughs will lead to radical changes in human identity and our psychological relationship to other species with whom we might find kinship," Scala continues. "Interestingly, Piccinini's work evokes the spirit of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in envisioning a future of collaged or hybrid bodies.  But whereas Shelley's was a cautionary tale in which the scientist reviled his own monstrous creation, for Piccinini the message is that we should feel compassion for the things that we create, for we are all branches of the same genetic family."

Fairy Tales, Monsters, and the Genetic Imagination has been organized by Mark Scala, chief curator, Frist Center for the Visual Arts. 

The Frist Center for the Visual Arts is supported in part by the Metro Nashville Arts Commission, the Tennessee Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.