Claire Lieberman, Two Coats of Paint Artist Residency, Sunday, October 18–Friday, October 23. Open Studio: Wednesday, October 21, 5–7 pm / Contributed by Sharon Butler / Our second Resident Artist this month is Claire Lieberman, who joins us from Illinois. Lieberman creates playful-looking objects that have rounded shapes and shiny surfaces and conflate childhood toys with instruments of violence, blending ideas about humor and control. Toys, guns, grenades, flowers, sex toys, and fruit have all served as models for her work. Like Claes Oldenburg, who made everyday objects subjects for sculpture, Lieberman treats ordinary things as serious cultural symbols. But while Oldenburg’s humor feels warm and affectionate, Lieberman’s work, hand-carved in black marble, pulses with threats lurking below the surface. Her pulp paintings, lithographs, and linoleum prints employ similar imagery.
