This event was recorded August 8, 2024 at Schermer Meeting Hall
during the 2024 Summer Series, in partnership with Aspen Public Radio.
Hilary Pecis (b. 1979, Fullerton, California) makes paintings and drawings in which tableaus rich with interlocking fields of saturated color, geometric patterning, and bold linework provide views of sun-drenched domestic still lifes and landscape environments. Books crowding a coffee table, the remains of a dinner party, and terrains lush with Southern California succulents make frequent appearances in her work; these meticulously arranged interiors and vibrantly rendered exteriors amount to an overarching portrait of the self that identifies objects and locations as signifiers for human characteristics. Pecis combines distorted perspectives and surprising juxtapositions of hue, placing her work in dialogue with modernist art historical movements like Fauvism in which subjective and analytical tendencies are synthesized. At the same time, her interest in images sourced from her personal experience allows her to transform recognizable mise-en-scènes into vivid explorations that celebrate the quiet moments of everyday life.
Benjamin Godsill is a curator, art advisor and podcaster. Benjamin is a leading authority in the realm of late 20th and early 21st Century art and is a global tastemaker whose savvy curatorial and market insights have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Bloomberg, among other publications. As an art advisor and the Founder of Curatorial Services, LLC Benjamin has worked for almost a decade with some of the world’s top private collectors to build and refine exceptional collections of Post-War and Contemporary Art. He also serves as the curator of the Dallas and London based Labora collection. A highly sought-after curator, Benjamin has organized highly regarded exhibitions in Mexico City, the Republic of Georgia, Italy, Aspen, Detroit, Dallas, East Hampton, and London as well as New York and Los Angeles. He was the first to exhibit a number of artists who have gone on to earn significant curatorial accolades and market attention.