This past weekend, we opened a new exhibition at our Allendale location with artwork by Jared Deery. Jared is one of my favorite people in the art world… he is self-aware, thoughtful, hard-working and talented.

When I was talking with Jared about the exhibition, he told me that so much of the art was made in his apartment during the early stages of Covid. We talked about all of the adjustments that he needed to make, like buying supplies on Amazon and working with found objects. However, we never talked about the imagery.

This morning I found myself staring at this painting and thinking that it was potentially a self-portrait that demonstrated what it felt like to have Covid. You can clearly see the head above his partially exposed beard looking like it is full of congestion, with red lungs streaked below.

I always find it amazing when an artist can take a painful subject and somehow make it look beautiful. His use of color and abstraction really soften the story. As we continue to pull away from this once in a century experience, it is important that we all recognize that we have the ability to reframe what has occurred so that we can find the joy in the future.