Eric Fischl & Sara Cochran in front of Paul Davis’s Sonny Liston, 1965, Print. Photo by Talena Mascali
Tickets
Members: $20
Non-Members: $25
“This show [Strike Fast, Dance Lightly] is a sermon about the belief and value we put on the struggle to be, to live, to understand, to love, to try and to never give up,” shares Eric Fischl when describing The Church’s current exhibition Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing. Hear more from Fischl and Sara Cochran as the co-curators converse on the conceptual and curatorial process revolving around this mammoth of an exhibition featuring 70 works of varying mediums by 56 nationally and internationally known artists. Fischl and Cochran will lead a tour of the exhibition, after hours when the building is closed, allowing guests an exclusive viewing of the gallery.
After the tour, will be a reading from esteemed poet Philip Schultz. When reflecting on the exhibition, Schultz writes, “All artists are boxers, going up against their angst, the creative storm to define the essential nature of their personas. In this powerful boxing exhibition, the fighter in Eric Fischl’s painting looks overwhelmed and confused, his fists and psyche bloodied and exhausted, imprisoned in a story that perhaps also deals with the new and distraught roles masculinity plays today. I grew up playing games of chicken in my immigrant neighborhood in Rochester, NY, and later with Norman Mailer, endless contests in which there were no real winners or losers, only bouts between raw ambition and fear and self-doubt. Norman was the teacher and I the student, that is until a woman wandered by, and I’d find myself lying on the ground, having water splashed in my face. Because I would regularly beat Mailer at Indian wrestling, he once set up a bout between me and Jose Torres, the light heavyweight champ, at his house in Stockbridge, MA, which ended with me being made to hide in his attic all night. I’ll read pieces like these from my memoir, Comforts of The Abyss.”
The evening will conclude with a lively conversation between Cochran, Fischl, and Schultz as they discuss the show, the emotional tension it evokes, and the varied interpretations of boxing within contemporary art. Following the conversation, will be a light reception with mocktails courtesy of Aplós –– Non-Alcoholic Spirit, a better way to unwind!
About PHILIP SCHULTZ Philip Schultz is the author of eight poetry collections, including Luxury and the Pulitzer Prize–winning Failure, as well as Comforts of the Abyss, the memoir My Dyslexia, and The Wherewithal, a novel in verse. The founder of The Writers Studio, he has been teaching creative writing since 1971. He resides in East Hampton, New York.