Bonfoey Gallery Takes on The Great Unknowns

Dana Oldfather was reading a bedtime story to her 2-year-old son when inspiration struck. Like the brave little boy who faced his fear of the dark in Maurice Sendak’s Into the Night Kitchen, the 37-year-old artist wanted to create an exhibition that reminds us to fight back against the scary unknowns in our lives. “[The story] is all about this boy who hears a racket in the night,” she says. “Instead of being afraid of it, he shouts back at it.” The exhibit, which opens Oct. 7, features new paintings from Andy Curlowe, Amber Kempthorn, Amy Kligman and Erik Neff. In Unwinding, for example, Kempthorn highlights the nostalgia of childhood items like running shoes and Dairy Queen signs with bright color choices, but contrasts that lightness with the impending threat of a circling flock of crows. “While [the artists] all are very intelligent, socially and politically conscious people, they still maintain this levity in their work that I think is really important in times like these,” Oldfather says.

Oct. 7-Nov. 19, Bonfoey Gallery, bonfoey.com