The Bitter Pains considers the parallels between myth and architecture as forms of world-building—that is, as systems for making sense of unstable conditions. Composed of text fragments and sculptural forms, this exhibition invites viewers to move through language as space, encountering shifting narratives of love, loss, and endurance. Working with cast-off materials from the building trades, The Bitter Pains reflects cycles of use, abandonment, and reuse within overlapping social, political, and climatic uncertainties. By working primarily with discarded objects, Julie Wills’ work offers a timely examination of the role we all play in creating a landscape where consumerism and ecology have coalesced. Wills’s works have been shown in museums and galleries across the U.S., including recent solo exhibitions at Plain Sight in Washington, DC (commissioned by the Embassy of Sweden and the European Union National Institutes for Culture), Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Gettysburg College, and MoCA Arlington. Wills earned her MFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and MA in Art Criticism from the University of Montana. She lives and works in Baltimore, and is an Associate Professor of Art at Washington College.

*Please join us for an opening reception and artist talk on Saturday, August 22nd at 2pm

This exhibition is presented together with a one-day workshop on Saturday, October 10th on the use of text in visual art forms – open to all those with a curious and creative mind! You can read more about this class and register here.