Exhibition

BFA Visual & Critical Studies presents “The Grief Club,” an interdisciplinary body of work presented as a fictitious nightclub by artist Sarah Stolar. The motivation to create this work is a result of Sarah’s desire to use dark humor and irony to explore the emotions of grief. It is informed by 17th century Dutch vanitas paintings, with their references to pleasure and the certainty of death, and the Kübler Ross model of the Five Stages of Grief, which she has personified as entertainers. They embody the Celtic tradition of keening women—paid mourners who wail lamentations, feast, dance and perform provocative acts in a party-style funeral called “the merry wake.” 

Sarah Stolar, who is the descendant of a lineage of artists, was mentored by her mother, Merlene Schain, her entire life. In 2018, Merlene was diagnosed with advanced stage Alzheimer’s disease and Sarah became her primary caregiver. Caring for her initiated this new interdisciplinary body of work, which continues beyond her mother’s death in April 2022. While this work is autobiographical, it is also about our collective trauma. Sarah states, “As a result of our current sociopolitical climate, COVID-19, isolation, and the great loss of lives, we are all living in an age of loneliness and grief. This project is a body of work, but it is also a uniting idea. “The Grief Club” establishes a type of ‘membership’ that anyone can theoretically join, thus creating a ‘place’ for human connection and healing without masking the reality of grief.” “The Grief Club” challenges our traditional experience of sadness (reserved, conservative, somber) and the appropriate methods of coping (therapy, medication, positive thinking) by interpreting the raw and real ways many humans find comfort (escapism, sexual promiscuity, drug use). 

“The Grief Club” includes large-scale figurative drawings and paintings, photography and archival inkjet prints, text-based block prints and neon and edible art. “Selected Works from ‘The Grief Club’” at the Flatiron Project Space will present new paintings and a selection of works curated from the project.

For more information on Sarah Stolar and her work, visit www.sarahstolar.com.