F L O C K

We invite visitors to flock to PAFA on June 7th at 2pm for a series of object lessons. To flock means to both cover with velvety material--a technique Villalongo uses recurrently in pieces that comprise the exhibit--and to gather together in a group, often with a guide or a leader. During these lessons, participants will guide visitors through a series of encounters with pieces from Villalongo's exhibition, sharing how they navigate the wonderful tangle of thoughts, memories, sensations, hopes, and frustrations those works summon. Ultimately, the event will both welcome visitors to the fold of Villalongo's appreciators and help them plot their individual explorations of deep time, the contemporary moment, and the futures that remain ever possible in concert with his work.

Organized by William Villalongo and Sasha-Mae Eccelston and featuring Mark Thomas Gibson, Lyra Monteiro, Marques Redd, and Saya Woolfalk.

This approximately 90-minute program will guide viewers through the exhibition. Free with museum admission. 

Dr. Sasha-Mae Eccleston is currently the John Rowe Workman Assistant Professor of Classics at Brown University where she also directs the fellowship in Critical Classical Studies for PhDs and/or MFAs. She is cofounder of the scholarly society Eos and of Racing the Classics, a field-wide initiative for early career academic researchers and doctoral candidates in Classics and adjacent fields. In addition to articles, she is the author of Epic Events, a book about ancient Greece, Rome, and the politics of time in the contemporary United States.

William Villalongo is an assistant professor at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York. In 2016, he co-curated Black Pulp!, a traveling exhibition of a collection of printed media produced by Black publishers, Black artists, and non-Black artists, with fellow artist Mark Thomas Gibson. Villalongo is a 2021 recipient of the Rome Prize in the visual arts, awarded by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Denver Art Museum; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C; the Princeton University Art Museum;  the Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC; the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC; and the Yale University Art Gallery, among others.

The artist received his B.F.A. from The Cooper Union School of Art, NYC, and his M.F.A. from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Philadelphia.

Artwork credit: Beacon, 2022. Velvet flocking, gold chains, drinking gourds, Testa di Moro, artificial basil, obsidian, quartz, hematite, sea shells, starfish and coral. 96 x 24 x 24 in. Copyright The Artist.