Andrew Shi

On Thursday evening, students and faculty members gathered in the Edwards Center for Art and Dance for the opening reception of “sunset in a cup,” an exhibition by Courtney Stock ’09. The Visual Arts Department collaborated with Stock to bring the exhibition to life, with support from the Visual Arts Edwards Gallery Exhibition Fund.

Stock explained how the exhibition incorporates the playfulness of the Emily Dickinson poem, “Bring me the sunset in a cup,” after which it is titled.

“It’s an absurd request, an impossible request to get the sunset in a cup,” Stock said. “In the same way, I feel like I’m playing with absurdity and also a bit of an irreverent tone with these works. They’re crafted with care, but not taking themselves too seriously.”

Upon entering the gallery, the viewer is greeted by an explosion of colors and textures. A wave of seafoam green paint is stamped across the gallery wall, backgrounding installations that range in scale from mixed-media arches that tower over the viewer to smaller clay sculptures balanced on a gallery ledge.

“I wanted to create something that felt like an immersive environment that would transform the space into something that felt slightly otherworldly,” she said.

One attendee, Maya Salter ’28, highlighted the impact of the exhibition’s vibrant colors.

“I walk by this room every day, and I’d notice how colorful the sculptures were, and [I] was drawn to it,” she said. “I love the elements of felt and fabric and strings.”

The consideration of space and the relationship between the body of the viewer and the artwork are key to Stock’s sculptural practice, evident through her use of texture and the organicism of her forms.

“I think as somebody who’s trained as a dancer, my body awareness and the way I think about movement and the architecture of my body has really informed my practice,” Stock said. “I make sculpture because I want to be speaking, body to body or appealing to someone’s physicality.”

Stock expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to return to and rediscover Bowdoin’s artistic spaces, explaining that the project is part of a larger initiative to showcase the work of alumni artists on campus.

“I feel very grateful and lucky that Eleanor [Conover, assistant professor of visual arts,] asked me to do this exhibition,” Stock said, “It’s a part of a larger initiative to get alumni artists to show in this gallery on campus.… It’s really special to have a chance to come here, spend some time in this building and get to feel part of the community again.”

When asked what she wants students and other viewers to take away from the exhibition, she expresses hope that the artworks will offer brightness to cut through the cold of winter, serving as a reminder of color before the reemergence of spring.

“Especially with this piece here, which the title of this piece is ‘sunset in a cup,’ it’s thinking about offering something that is very colorful and texture rich in the way that the spring and summer are, and something that, hopefully, will bring some curiosity and color to the season before the plants start to bloom,” Stock said.