On Dec. 11, Archer’s Eastern Star Gallery featured contemporary artist Brad Spence in their show “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” Despite the cold weather, many Archer parents, students, teachers and community guests joined for a night of art.
Chad Attie, Archer’s gallery teacher, first connected with Spence “at Shoshana Wayne Gallery a few years ago, and was very impressed with his work. It all carried cinematic quality, nostalgia, intimacy, and it all resonated with me.” The gallery students choose Brad Spence out of around 30 possible artists to be featured in their second show because they “loved the colors and the stories the work told,” Rachel Karasik ’16 explained.
Ceil Torres ’17 said that they “were interested in the his work because it touched on gender roles and life in the eighties.” Although the artist wasn’t female, he expressed aspects of femininity in his work.
Emilia Emcke ’17 named the show and described the background for the title: “’Nothing Gold Can Stay’ [a poem by Robert Frost] has to do with the loss of innocence and essentially growing up. It’s sad, but nothing good can last forever.”
Hillary O’Connor ’15 explained the collaboration with Spence: “He understood we were students and accommodated…our needs.” Emcke added, “But he still treated like we were adults and professionals.”
The class and the artist had a similar direction for the show. Camilla Gascon ’15 explained how she wanted to the show to express “an eighties nostalgia, but still staying chic and timeless.”
This time around, Gazcon said they were “more experienced with publicity.” Their Instagram (@Easternstargallery) twitter, and website are all coordinated by Ceil Torres ’17, who said, “Whenever anything happens I am taking photos and posting them. The new website/ blog will be a place to promote and blog about shows and artist we’ve worked with.”
Brad Spence described his collaboration with the girls, saying, “This show shows a teenage boy looking at girls in high school and completely misunderstanding them, and then to work with these teenage girls, they reinterpret and complete it—it was an amazing experience.”
