Featured in the Palo Gallery, Lisa Ross's (ACC 2016) solo exhibition Poisonous Weeds depicts a series a defaced propaganda murals painted in China during the Cultural Revolution. Poisonous Weeds is comprised of large-format, abstract work, and smaller-scale photographs. A quote by Mao Zedong: "Any wrong thoughts, all poisonous weeds, all monsters and demons, should be criticized, and they must not be allowed to spread freely." serves as the inspiration behind the title for this exhibit. The photos are informed by Ross's past residency in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province. 

In these large-format works, Ross interprets the murals through manipuation of color, hue, and contrast. This enables ross to heavily saturate pigments, distress the texture, and evoke an abstracted painterly hand. While these are inspired from photography, the application of paint and abstract is more visible to the eye. In this work, Ross dials up the color to a loud blast. The reds, yellows, and whites are all intentionally created. "Suggestive of violence, sanguinity, rage, revolution, and power, the reds push against the written characters that, scarifying the surface like stigmata, revivify the past while pulling it into the present. The works are a mix of triumph, defeat, dissolution, and change."

The exhibit opens on May 19, 2023 with a public reception from 6:00pm to 8:00pm.

To learn more about the exhibit, click here.