The Golden Colonel

Flux Factory
404A Colonels Row, Governors Island
July 12 – August 11, 2024 

As part of its fourth seasonal residency on Governors Island, Flux Factory presents the group exhibition, The Golden Colonel, a speculative retirement home for artists, curated by artists Heather Kapplow and Itala Aguilera.

There is an unspoken understanding that because being an artist is not a “real” job, but something more like a calling, and because artists often don’t earn enough money to save for old age, they can’t retire. They just make art until they die. From July 12 through August 11, 2024, The Golden Colonel explores some of the complexities of artists considering the same choice to retire from their practices as everyone else.

Most people wait until they retire to explore their creativity. The Golden Colonel is a place for people who have already done that. So what comes next? We’ve gathered work by artists ranging in age from their early 20s to their early 80s to reflect on what might lie beyond artmaking, or whether it’s even possible to stop making art.

(Source: The Golden Colonel – Flux Factory)

As part of this project, I provided Art Therapy for the artists at the “retirement home.”