RIVERFRONT 20/20
Juried Exhibition

September 11, 2020 - January 3, 2021

George Lorio, Sea Rise — George Lorio, *Sea Rise*

Phoebe Grace, High Tide — Phoebe Grace, *High Tide*

OPENING EVENT:
Friday, September 11 | 5 - 8 PM

SPECIAL PROGRAMMING:
Friday, November 6 | 5 - 8 PM

- 5 PM | DJ Skinny White
- 7 PM | Gallery Talk with Curator-in-Residence, Kristen Hileman
- Artist awards will be announced - WATCH VIDEO

AWARD WINNERS

Curatorial Grand Prize: Sandra Lee
Honorable Mention: Renqian Yang
Honorable Mention: Maeve McCool
Popular Vote: Vibration Lands, by Andrew Chalfen

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On the heels of our 20th year on the riverfront, The Delaware Contemporary celebrates innovation and the creative spirit in our juried Riverfront 20/20 exhibition. This call for artworks sought a visual dialogue by artists of the Mid-Atlantic region examining diverse approaches to built environments, natural terrain, and relationships to community.

Artists chose to respond to The Delaware Contemporary's call inspired by riverfront sites in numerous ways, sharing works that reflect a variety of media, both abstract and representational imagery, and approaches that convey beauty, humor, desolation, and more. However, the art of the sixteen selected Mid-Atlantic artists is united by a view that riverfront settings, like that in which this museum has evolved over the past twenty years, are a significant interface between nature and humanity; and, an opportunity to investigate the ways people and their environment fall in and out of harmony.

A number of works in this show draw motifs and materials from nature, reflecting the visual and tactile experiences of being on a riverfront and interacting with water and plant life. Wood and clay, along with drawn, painted, and printed forms seem to sprout, grow, and persevere in these pieces. Other artists are inspired by the aesthetics of the urban and industrial environments that have historically developed along rivers. These works might present the vibrancy of human activity, warn against its excesses, or point to the decay and strange solitude of abandoned areas. Regardless of whether the works are celebratory or cautionary in tone, the powerful emotional and sensory impact of the riverfront experience is felt in them.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Ken Beidler, Ava Blitz, Agathe Bouton, Caroline Brown, Susan Casey, Andrew Chalfen, Delna Dastur, Phoebe Grace, Cat Gunn, Nanci Hersh, Sarah Hunter, Sandra Eula Lee, George Lorio, Maeve McCool, Kathran Siegel, and Renqian Yang.

DuPont I & II Galleries

Guest Juror Kristen Hileman

Baltimore-based independent curator Kristen Hileman spent nearly two decades working as a curator at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC and more recently as the Head of the Contemporary Department at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Her monographic exhibitions brought new attention to important female artists Anne Truitt and Maren Hassinger, and she has realized major commissions with Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley, Sarah Oppenheimer, Tomás Saraceno and others. Additionally, Hileman has organized exhibitions of the works of John Baldessari, Cai Guo-Qiang, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Lizzie Fitch/Ryan Trecartin, Meleko Mokgosi, and John Waters, and she has taught at the Corcoran College of Art and Design, George Washington University, and Johns Hopkins University.