PAST IMPERFECT: New Work by Deborah Muirhead

Art Inspired by Findings from African Burial Grounds
on View at Housatonic

Deborah Muirhead has created provocative paintings, drawings and books inspired by the 1991 excavation of the African Burial Grounds in lower Manhattan. These works will be on view in The Burt Chernow Galleries at Housatonic Community College from March 4 through April 15, 2000.

Libby, Oil on Canvas 72" x 120", 1998

The exhibition, Past Imperfect: Recovering and Reinterpreting History, represents Muirhead's attempt to trace, define and ultimately recover the past of a people brought to America in bondage and excluded from the historical record. The work presented confronts issues of race, gender and class oppression. It is a form of resistance against the messages of "otherness" still prevalent is our society.

Muirhead is an African-American woman descended from enslaved persons. She uses a variety of media, including texts from 19th century books to construct identities and recapture voices once silenced by oppression and slavery.

The Burt Chernow Galleries are open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and on Thursday until 7 p.m. On Saturday the Galleries are open from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

For more information, call (203) 332-5052.