Opening Celebration – The Word of God: Jeffrey Vallance 

Join us as we celebrate the opening of our fifth and final exhibition in The Word of God series, The Word of God: Jeffrey Vallance. The artist will give a lecture at 2pm followed by a reception.

Jeffrey Vallance creates objects, installations; performance and curatorial works. Some of his past projects have included: traveling throughout Polynesia in search of the origin of the myth of Tiki; creating a Richard Nixon Museum; and traveling to the Vatican, Turin, and Milan, Italy to study Christian relics.

“As I infiltrate various cultural institutions, my role changes from artist to cultural ambassador, anthropologist, explorer, writer, curator, paranormal researcher, professor, crackpot, prankster and quasi-spiritualist; but the methodology stays the same: First, I research everything there is to know about a subject, […]. Upon return to the studio, I make stuff in whatever material I feel is appropriate — photography, video, text, and so on. Next, I exhibit the work in a public place. And finally, documentation of the work is placed on the Internet with the aim that it will spread like an urban legend, contaminating various fields of knowledge.” (whitehot | March 2011, Interview with Jeffrey Vallance)

It is Vallance’s interest in the relics and religion that brings his work to the Word of God series. The Warhol will feature The Vallance Bible; Jesus Exegesis, Three Beatific Visions and the Gospel According to Jeffery, a series of writings based upon Vallance’s personal experiences, spiritual upbringing, studies and reading. The exhibition will also contain a selection of his reliquary objects. Vallance has a vast historical and cultural knowledge of the tradition of relics. Raised as a Lutheran he was taught how such objects were inventions for “silly folk” but today believes “they are among the most beautiful and wondrous art objects created by humankind.” His reliquaries, like Warhol’s Time Capsules, store and revere mementos of travel, superstars, products and kitsch; from the plastic animals excavated from his backyard as a child in 1958 to the Vallance family Lutheran Catechism or a tuft of green shag carpet from Elvis Presley’s house in Graceland.

Additional Information

A lecture with artist Jeffrey Vallance will begin at 2pm in the Warhol Theater, followed by a reception in the Museum lobby. The reception will feature coffee, tea, lite bites and a cash wine bar.