Pell Lucy artists come together again for a new exhibit at the Grimshaw-Gudewicz Gallery at Bristol Community College in Fall River Massachusetts, from October 31 through December 13, 2024. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, November 7 from 6-8pm.
Information about the show can be found on the gallery website. (Also included, an online brochure with every artist’s work and words featured.)
The title of this show was inspired by an iconic poem by Emily Dickinson:
Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind —
An essay by Kathleen Hancock, Chief Curator of Exhibition Development and Creative Programming Administrator, is included in the brochure:
Pell Lucy is an international collective of artists that came together during the pandemic, under the guidance of Deborah Barlow. The name “Pell Lucy” is a thoughtful play on the word “pellucid,” which means clear or transparent. This choice reflects the group’s shared commitment to creating art that transcends the human form and speaks to something greater—something that connects us to the world beyond our immediate experience.
Although Pell Lucy artists do not set out with explicit messages or agendas, their work still makes a powerful statement—one that resonates on both a political and social level. By allowing form to speak in its own voice, they reveal truths that are often hidden from view: the profound connection we share with the cosmos and all that exists within it. Their approach to art is a way of fostering a deeper connection with the world, urging us to feel, rather than just see, our place within it.
This perspective aligns closely with Emily Dickinson’s famous poem, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” Dickinson’s words suggest that truth, especially when it is complex or challenging, is best revealed gradually, with care and subtlety. The idea is that truth should be shared in a way that allows people to absorb it fully, rather than overwhelming them all at once. This concept of careful, incremental revelation is echoed in Pell Lucy’s work, where the emphasis is not on direct messaging but on creating space for a deeper understanding to emerge naturally.
In the exhibition Slant Dazzle, 34 artists from the collective have chosen a piece that responds to this idea of truth revealed indirectly, as suggested by Dickinson’s poem. The result is a collection of works that invite us to reflect on the broader themes found in Dickinson’s writing. The works do not need to overtly illustrate the poem’s ideas to be meaningful; rather, they embody the same nuanced approach to truth and understanding that Dickinson herself championed. Through this exhibition, we are offered a chance to engage with these ideas in a way that is both thoughtful and profound, revealing the beauty in complexity and the power of art to touch the depths of human experience.
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And as the founder of Pell Lucy, I was also invited to write a few words:
Pell Lucy came into existence at a particular moment in time—right as the pandemic began, when galleries were shuttering and exhibition venues closing. Initially intended as a way for like-minded artists to share their work in spite of these shutdowns, Pell Lucy evolved into a collective with a committed art making ethos: form possesses an intelligence of its own, an intelligence far deeper and more complex than conscious, discursive thought.
That idea informs so much of how the artists in Pell Lucy approach their work. They have honed working methods to cultivate a collaborative relationship with form–learning from materials, trusting the process, being open to the serendipitous, staying unwaveringly focused. These approaches bring an artist closer to what is sensed but not yet manifested. Addressing the immensity of that process, Susan Sontag encouraged art viewers to just experience “the luminousness of the thing in itself.”
When form is allowed to speak on its own terms, art making and art viewing expand past the narrow bandwidths of human language and rational ideation. The implications of this are deep and wide because acknowledging the intelligence of form informs our place in nature, on the earth and in the cosmos. We are embedded in everything, and everything is embedded in us.
This way of perceiving the world found synergy with Emily Dickinson’s 19th century iconic poem, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” Dickinson’s poem celebrates the multifaceted nature of how truth is perceived and expressed. There is no one answer to the quest for truth, and when we do “tell all the truth” it is still personal, particular and unique. Dickinson goes on to refer to the nonlinear notion of circularity and the frequent need to take a roundabout, elliptical route (“Success in Circuit lies.”) The poem’s penultimate line asserts that “The Truth must dazzle gradually.” High flash pyrotechnics and drama are not the way in to those authentic moments of breathtaking clarity. That comes in increments, by carefully and determinedly exploring the folds and layers that a work of art possesses.
Comingling Dickinson’s exquisite poem with the visual language of 33 artists is a delicate undertaking. It requires a sensitive eye and a finely tuned sensibility, and Grimshaw-Gudewicz Gallery has embraced this challenge with enthusiasm and a steady competence. On behalf of all the Pell Lucy artists I want to thank Kathleen Hancock and her team for honoring our work and the values Pell Lucy embodies by bringing this exhibition to Bristol Community College.
Some photos from the Opening Reception on November 7, 2024. (Photos by Deborah Barlow, Kat Fanelli, Laura Gurton, Karen Fitzgerald and Deborah Peeples.)
