Exhibition on view (online): May 28 – July 8, 2020
Opening Reception (via Zoom): May 29, 2:30-3:30 pm ET

Fountain House Gallery, representing artists living with mental illness, announces the group exhibition Art in Quarantine. The show, which features more than 100 original works, will be on view online from May 28, 2020 through July 8, 2020. An Opening Reception will be held via the Zoom platform on May 29, 2020, from 2:30 pm until 3:30 pm ET, join here. In keeping with the “shelter in place” order necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Fountain House Gallery, Fountain House Studio, and parent organization Fountain House are closed until further notice.

Art in Quarantine showcases works in mediums including acrylic, watercolor, oil, pastel, mixed media, digital photography, and more. In addition to pieces created during the period of sheltering in place, the exhibition features selected works made previously.

“During this time of isolation, the member-artists of Fountain House have explored what ‘art in quarantine’ looks like,” said Karen Gormandy, Fountain House Studio Coordinator. “While sheltering in place, we find ourselves in our own company, away from the sights, sounds, and all sensory memories that informed us that we are connected to each other. We’ve lost track of time and worked at not losing track of ourselves. To reconnect, we have found ways to make art. Fishing around for tools, we searched for paper, paint, or wire, old books, spices for pigment, scissors, foil. We examined how we could manifest the artistic impulse. We looked outward or inward for inspiration. We bounced around in our heads and couldn’t focus. Looking inward, we were confronted with a new fear or a certain beauty. We gazed longingly out the window and wished we could go about our business. We looked in and away from the mirror. We discovered  beauty that was always there—a beauty that lived in our memory or presented itself in front of us, in our confined present. The mundane became profound. We reached for our art in whatever place we could find it; it was captured, it was what we wanted or didn’t. It didn’t matter, it is what we have.”

This program is funded, in part, by generous support from the Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the David Rockefeller Fund, and the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund.

About Fountain House Gallery: Fountain House Gallery and Studio provides an environment where artists living with mental illness can express their creative visions and exhibit their work. Founded by Fountain House in 2000, the storefront Gallery in Manhattan sells original artworks and collaborates with a wide network of artists, curators and cultural institutions. The Studio, located in Long Island City, is a collaborative workspace that furthers the professional practice of our artists. Embracing artists who are emerging or established, trained or self-taught, Fountain House Gallery cultivates artistic growth, makes a vital contribution to the New York arts community, and challenges the stigma surrounding mental illness.

All Fountain House Gallery artists are members of Fountain House, founded in New York City in 1948 with the belief that people living with mental illness can be active participants in their own and each other’s recovery. Over the past seven decades, Fountain House has inspired the creation of hundreds of similar programs in 32 states and 34 countries that serve more than 100,000 people annually.