Welcome to The Dinner Table. This suite of exhibitions invites you to reflect on one of our most familiar and profound daily practices.
Running from January 17th to May 25th, this season at The Delaware Contemporary reimagines the dinner table as more than a functional object—it becomes a site of memory, connection, and cultural significance.
Through a dynamic collection of paintings, sculptures, installations, and more, these exhibitions explore how this everyday ritual can evoke nostalgia, spark dialogue, and serve as a lens for examining the dynamics of gathering and separation, conversation, and silence.
From reflecting on family meals to contemplating the histories and stories that unfold around shared spaces, the works on view challenge us to consider our relationships and intimate spaces where we meet.
We hope you enjoy this season’s offering and share this powerful exploration of human connection.
Fearless Improv Workshop
City Theater Company
Unleash your creativity, boost your confidence, and discover the joy of spontaneous laughter in our Intro to Improv Workshop!
Saturday, January 18
Workshop 4 - 6 PM ; Show 7 - 9 PM
PALETTE TO PALATE
Enjoy a four-course, chef-curated dining experience prepared by Chef Michael DiBianca of Ciro Food & Drink. Don’t miss this opportunity to indulge your senses and support two of Wilmington’s leading arts organizations.
Thursday, January 16
6:30 - 9:30 PM
ART LOOP
First Friday
Join us to celebrate the opening reception of our Winter and Spring season, DINNER TABLE.
Friday, February 7th
5 — 9 PM
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VANITAS
DUPONT I AND II GALLERIES
André Schulze, LF89 Bouquet Red
Art history has served as connecter, community builder, and cultural signifier. However, it has also reflected value systems that, just as often, keep individuals and groups isolated, excluded, and left out of the conversation. Genres of painting that have persisted through, and evolved with, artistic movements serve as reflections of the period’s value systems, in the context of Western society. Vanitas explores how today’s artists transform these traditional iconographies to articulate contemporary viewpoints, commentary, and value systems.
TAKE A SEAT
DUPONT I AND II GALLERIES
Sierra Montoya Barela, Sunday Morning
The dinner table recalls memories of cuisine, traditions, and faces. Many of these memories are not clearly outlined but rather assembled through our experiences' periphery. At the edge are small details such as decor or furniture, all of which complement the feeling and evoke emotion that registers our memories of the moments. The settings themselves often define the sensibility of the dinner table. Working within and beyond these domestic settings, Sierra Montoya Barles, Debra Broz, and Adam Ledford each contribute their distinct techniques to a larger place setting, inviting visitors to reminisce on tables past and present.
PULL UP A CHAIR
LOBBY GALLERY
Mia Fabrizio, Mama Liked the Roses
In these works, Fabrizio explores the power structures and cultural paradigms associated with, “having a seat at the table.” Fabrizio reveals how furniture conventions can grant power to the user. It is the “power to be seen, power to be heard, and power to contribute to the framing of a society” that Fabrizio aims to scrutinize. The chair sculptures become vessels for memories with details that reference labor, gender, and cultural constructs. Her multilayered constructions toggle between tearing apart and memorializing her personal experience. The assembly and material choices subvert the basic understood function of a “seat” and reveal illusions of functional space. She asserts that “these seats are invitations in name only, token representations.”
