Faculty and Staff

Darren Waterston - Uncertain Beauty

03/26/14

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Filthy Lucre, detail

Darren Waterston OS21 resident visiting artist and trustee. Waterston's exhibit Uncertain Beauty at Mass MoCA opened March 8, 2014 and can be viewed through January 2015. The centerpiece of the exhibition is the installation Filthy Lucre, a contemporary re-imagining of James McNeill Whistler's decorative masterpiece Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room (1876-77). The installation is accompanied by two galleries featuring a selection of works on wood panel and canvas. Like Filthy Lucre, they express both the grotesque and the beautiful, hinting at utopian fantasies and Arcadian dreams, as well as apocalyptic nightmares.

Filthy Lucre will travel to the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, opening in January 2015 and remaining on view through May 2016. For more on Waterston's work go to darrenwaterston.com.

Artistically, I learned a lot of new techniques and mediums while here. I had access to much more than before and I made the most of it. I tried everything I could and always talked to my teachers and peers about new ways I could make art. Every so often, I completely stepped out of my comfort zone. Experimenting with technique and testing my artistic boundaries has helped me realize how many paths I have to choose from in the art world and that makes me excited for the future.

— Macy Manning, Fall 2023

I learned to drop all previous assumptions I had about people because I had never met anyone like the other students at Oxbow. For the first time, my peers and their insightful thinking inspired me. For example, during the ‘Einstein’s Dreams’ presentations, I kept looking around the room thinking, I can’t believe all of these students are talking the way I think.

— Sara DeLong, Spring 2010

In the year leading up to Oxbow, I became obsessed with the program, I was entranced with reading testimonials and researching interdisciplinary learning styles. When I arrived at Oxbow I was never disappointed, despite my endless expectations. I will forever cherish the time I spent at Oxbow and the connections I made there. Through Oxbow I was able to hone into the ideas I was thinking about, to refine my artistic process and to see the world in a new light every day of my life. I'm not going to say that without Oxbow I wouldn't be the person I am today, but I will say that without Oxbow it would have taken me at least four years to become who I am after one Oxbow semester.

— Phoebe Dubisch, Fall 2018

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