Exhibition: Maria Gaspar: Compositions

Iron bars recast as glass with sonic reverberations. Concrete walls made porous by precisely cut holes. A building disappearing into clouds, piece by piece. In Compositions, Chicago-based artist Maria Gaspar’s first solo exhibition on the West Coast, artworks are acts of alchemy. And video footage and debris salvaged from the demolition of a wing of the Cook County Department of Corrections, the largest single-site jail in the United States, becomes the material with which to build a liberated world.

Compositions features newly commissioned and existing works from the award-winning artist. From public actions, sound broadcasts, sculptures, paintings, to videos, for more than a decade Gaspar has explored the role of art within the collective struggle against the United States carceral system. The exhibition is organized as part of Visualizing Abolition, an arts-based initiative that reaches across prison borders to contribute to the unfolding collective story and alternative imagining underway to create a future free of prisons.

Maria Gaspar: Compositions will be on view at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences September 26, 2023 - March 3, 2024. 

Admission is free and open to the public.

Location: 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060

Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 12- 5 p.m. (Closed Mondays)