See Sarah Charlesworth's legacy with Sara VanDerBeek, Lucy Charlesworth Freeman, Matthew C. Lange
On the occasion of the new exhibition Sarah Charlesworth + Laurie Simmons + Sara VanDerBeek + Lucy Charlesworth Freeman, join exhibiting artists Sara VanDerBeek and Lucy Charlesworth Freeman, as well as Matthew C. Lange, studio manager of the Sarah Charlesworth Estate, as they speak about this foundationally important artist and her influence on their own practices. Presented as part of the SCAD Museum of Art’s fall season, this exhibition extends beyond the importance of Charlesworth’s own artwork to convey her enduring relevance to current and future generations. The discussion between these three interlocutors will share new perspectives on how Charlesworth continues to expand our understanding of photography’s role in our world today.
This event is free and open to the public.
About the artists
Sara VanDerBeek (b. 1976, Baltimore; lives and works in New York) has presented recent institutional exhibitions including Veiled Presence: The Hidden Mothers and Sara VanDerBeek at the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Fla., and Women & Museums at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. VanDerBeek has had solo exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art; Fondazione Memmo, Rome; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. VanDerBeek’s work was included in the inaugural New Visions Triennial for Photography and New Media at the Henie Onstad Art Center, Høvikodden, Norway (2020). She has also participated in two-person and group exhibitions at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Calif.; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston; Kunsthalle Berlin; Morgan Library and Museum, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, Asheville, N.C., among others.
Lucy Charlesworth Freeman, MPH MS MA (b. 1988, New York; lives and works in New York), is an artist whose conceptually driven works combine diagrammatic systems, language, biological imagery, and spiritual inquiry. Drawing on studies in medicine, public health, psychiatry, and theology, Freeman develops visual models that attempt to map interior states of consciousness and the structure of the soul. Her works merge the aesthetics of scientific illustration and educational texts with deeply personal investigations of faith, grief, transformation, and transcendence. Freeman’s practice began in 2017 following a profound spiritual experience that prompted an ongoing body of research into the relationship between the material and immaterial dimensions of human life. Working digitally and producing unique canvas-based works, she constructs intricate visual vocabularies that combine text, symbolic forms, and appropriated scientific imagery into expansive conceptual systems. Her work has been the subject of the solo exhibition Pages from a Book at Will Shott Gallery, New York (2023). Selected group exhibitions include Tabula Rasa at Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (2024); New Art Dealers Alliance, Miami (2023); Artist Book Week at BravinLee Programs, New York (2023); No Fear in Trying at Unit London (2021); Dreamhouse at Procell, New York (2018); and Nice Days at Spencer Sweeney Studio, New York (2017). Freeman received an M.A. from The New School for Social Research, an M.S. from Drexel University College of Medicine, an M.P.H. from Hunter College and the CUNY School of Public Health, and a B.A. from New York University.
Matthew C. Lange is a visual artist who employs photographic media and theoretical discourse in response to social and ecological concerns. He has staged performances and exhibited work in New York at CCNY Baxter Street, NURTUREart, and the New York Art Book Fair. Lange’s images and texts have appeared in Conveyor Magazine, Photograph Magazine, and the Brooklyn Rail. In addition to teaching courses on aesthetics, critical theory, and art history, Lange is the studio manager for the Sarah Charlesworth Estate.