Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture

Light Work to Exhibit ‘Newspaper Rock’

Wednesday, December 18, 2013, By News Staff
Share
Aspen Mays, "Dodge Collection 1," 2013

Aspen Mays, “Dodge Collection 1,” 2013

Light Work has announced the exhibition “Newspaper Rock,” featuring the work of Aspen Mays. The exhibition will run Jan. 16-March 6. An opening reception will take place Thursday, Jan. 30, from 5-7 p.m., with a gallery talk at 6 p.m.

Mays approaches her art-making practice with some of the same methodologies she learned acquiring a degree in anthropology. All of her projects begin by tracking down information, ideas and experts in the fields of science and astronomy. She finds, collects, unearths and creates images and objects that call into question our limited ability and deep desire to understand the vastness, complexity and sublime beauty of the physical universe and our place in it.

Her fieldwork has included a year in Santiago, Chile, at the University of Chile’s National Observatory, known locally as Cerro Calán. Because of its high altitude, dry air and almost non-existent clouds, the Atacama desert of Chile is one of the best places in the world to conduct astronomical observations.

In the desert, Mays could view the night sky with the naked eye in stunning clarity and detail. “The Milky Way is so bright in the desert that it casts a shadow on the ground,” she says. “I knew something that is impossible to know, an awareness of how tiny I am and how connected.”

Mays was born in Asheville, N.C., and raised in Charleston, S.C. She received an M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009. Her solo exhibitions include “Every Leaf on a Tree” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; “From the Offices of Scientists” at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago; and “Sun Ruins” at Golden Gallery, New York.

Mays was a 2009-2010 Fulbright Fellow in Santiago, where she worked with astronomers who are using the world’s most advanced telescopes. Mays lives and works in Columbus, Ohio, where she is an assistant professor of art at Ohio State University.

A workshop titled “The Dark Arts” will also be led by Mays on Saturday, Feb. 1, from 1-4 p.m. at Light Work Lab in conjunction with “Newspaper Rock.” Registration is open to members and the public. Find more information or register online at http://www.lightwork.org/workshops.

Gallery hours for these exhibitions are Sunday-Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. (except school holidays), and by appointment. To schedule an appointment, call 315-443-1300. Both the exhibition and reception are free and open to the public. Paid parking is available in Booth Parking Garage.

 

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • Neal Powless Inducted Into American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame
    Tuesday, June 3, 2025, By Kelly Homan Rodoski
  • Japan’s Crackdown on ‘Shiny’ Names Sparks Cultural Reflection
    Tuesday, June 3, 2025, By Keith Kobland
  • The Milton Legacy: Romance, Success and Giving Back
    Monday, June 2, 2025, By Eileen Korey
  • Five Tips to Protect Your Health and Prepare for Worsening Air Conditions
    Monday, June 2, 2025, By Daryl Lovell
  • Newhouse Professor Robert Thompson Featured on ‘NBC Nightly News’ for Pop Culture Lecture Series
    Monday, June 2, 2025, By Keith Kobland

More In Arts & Culture

Syracuse Stage Hosts Inaugural Julie Lutz New Play Festival

Syracuse Stage is pleased to announce that the inaugural Julie Lutz New Play Festival will be held at the theatre this June. Formerly known as the Cold Read Festival of New Plays, the festival will feature a work-in-progress reading and…

Light Work Opens New Exhibitions

Light Work has two new exhibitions, “The Archive as Liberation” and “2025 Light Work Grants in Photography, that will run through Aug. 29. “The Archive as Liberation” The exhibition is on display in the Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery at Light…

Spelman College Glee Club to Perform at Return to Community: A Sunday Gospel Jazz Service June 29

As the grand finale of the 2025 Syracuse International Jazz Fest, the Spelman College Glee Club of Atlanta will perform at Hendricks Chapel on Sunday, June 29. The Spelman College Glee Club, now in its historic 100th year, is the…

Alumnus, Visiting Scholar Mosab Abu Toha G’23 Wins Pulitzer Prize for New Yorker Essays

Mosab Abu Toha G’23, a graduate of the M.F.A. program in creative writing in the College of Arts and Sciences and a current visiting scholar at Syracuse University, has been awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for a series of essays…

School of Architecture Faculty Pablo Sequero Named Winner of 2025 Architectural League Prize

School of Architecture faculty member Pablo Sequero’s firm, salazarsequeromedina, has been named to the newest cohort of winners in the biennial Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers, one of North America’s most prestigious awards for young practitioners. “An…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.