Tonight, Harrison Bergeron, will be holding a public lecture about his MFA Thesis exhibition, currently on display at the George Caleb Bingham Gallery. Entitled “A Multimedia Extravaganza,” the exhibition is broken into two separate areas within the gallery space. When you enter the gallery down the ramp, the section closest to you is full of paintings in faux baroque frames. Within those frames, are paintings that seem eerily familiar. Washington Crossing the Delaware, is one of them, except instead of the figure of George Washington, the men in the boat, even the boat itself, it made out of clay. It’s a painting of a rough clay sculpture; very meta.

According to Bergeron’s artist statement, the clay symbolizes “the malleability of the original information and the struggle to understand it enough to learn about it.” It’s an interesting concept and one that makes this show very thought provoking.

On the other side of the wall, the pieces are videos being projects onto canvas or onto the walls themselves. On either side of the main video is a moving picture of colorful charts documenting the artist’s thought process and inspirations. On the back walls are videos of clay being molded and un-molded again. The main video is a kind of art show with a host that applies modern-day media to recognizable works of art. For example the “Happy Days” Jumping the Shark episode juxtaposed with Damien Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. The piece is a reflection on cultural influences and, to some extent, the current art climate.

WHERE: George Caleb Bingham Gallery, MU Campus

WHEN: Tonight, Wednesday April 25, 5 p.m.

WHAT: Artist Lecture: Harrison Bergeron

COST: FREE

CALL: 573-883-3555

Flyer for the Harrison Bergeron Show, produced by David Spear.