Let Us Remember: John E. Dowell Exhibit (1/13-2/26)

Let us remember, a new exhibit from well-known artist John Dowell starts at The Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral on 1/13 and runs through 2/26.  Dowell’s work documents the “horror and beauty of the cotton plantation,” “imagining the lives of enslaved ancestors and their attempted escapes.” The opening reception for the exhibit is on January 20 from 5-7 p.m.  

Dowell has worked as an artist for over four decades. A master printmaker whose prints, paintings and photographs have been featured in 50 one person exhibitions, he is represented in the permanent collections of 70 museum and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, France. Dowell’s photographs have been added to the collections of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Fogg Museum of Harvard University, the Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Lehigh University Museum. You can see a recent interview with him on WHYY

His 16-ft long print called "Night Before the Run" was shared over Zoom two years ago in the middle of the pandemic. This piece, a response to a dream he had above how he would spend a night before he escaped a slave plantation, will be on exhibit at the Cathedral.

The show will culminate on 1/25 when Lyric Fest brings to the Cathedral a special multi-media concert of new songs for solo voice and piano setting poetry inspired by John's photographs on the walls, including this one. (Tickets for that will be going fast at www.lyricfest.org)