“Amazing Stories” at NBMAA

The New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA) has announced its exhibition of works by New York-based artist Pablo Helguera.

The exhibition is part of the Museum’s NEW/NOW series, which the Museum says is, “dedicated to emerging and established contemporary artists.”

Helguera’s exhibition at the Museum, available until September 15, 2019, is entitled, “Amazing Stories,” named in honor of the Musuem’s Pulp Art illustration collection, which is the largest in the nation.

According to the Museum,

On the occasion of his exhibition, Helguera has created his own illustrated collection of three fictional stories, involving time and intercultural travel in and beyond New Britain. Intertwining fact and fiction, Helguera’s narratives take inspiration from objects in the permanent collection of the New Britain Museum of America Art, the social and cultural history of Greater New Britain, as well as the artist’s experience as an immigrant. Helguera’s accompanying exhibition features the artist’s original illustrations, installed together with the objects and artworks that informed his stories, including Shaker furniture, early works by Sol LeWitt, and photographs documenting New Britain’s industrial past.

In the summer, as part of the Multidisciplinary MFA Program at the Hartford Art School, the Museum says that Helguera will guide students, “to construct their own visual and literary stories,” based on an exploration of the Museums collections, works, “which will then be incorporated into the artist’s installation.”

Helguera, born in Mexico City, according to the Museum, works with, “installation, sculpture, photography, drawing, socially engaged art, and performance.”

“Primarily,” the Museum says, “his work examines an intersection of these issues, reflecting interpretation, dialogue, and the role of contemporary culture in a global reality.”

The New Britain Museum of American Art says that it

is the first institution dedicated solely to acquiring American art. Spanning four centuries of American history, the Museum’s permanent collection is renowned for its strengths in colonial portraiture, the Hudson River School, American Impressionism, the Ash Can School, as well as the important mural series The Arts of Life in America by Thomas Hart Benton. The singular focus on American art and its panoramic view of American artistic achievement, realized through the Museum’s extensive permanent collection, exhibitions, and educational programming, make the New Britain Museum of American Art a significant resource for a broad and diverse public.

The Museum is located at 56 Lexington Street.