The Benton Museum of Art celebrates exuberant collaboration with noted author and Pomona College professor Jonathan Lethem
Feb 15, 4–7 PM PT • Claremont, CA: Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College • 330 North College Way, Claremont, CA 91711
Claremont, CA—The Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College is thrilled to celebrate the creative collaboration between the Benton and novelist and Pomona professor Jonathan Lethem with two landmark events: the exhibition Jonathan Lethem’s Parallel Play: Contemporary Art and Art Writing, on view from February 13 to June 29, 2025, and Lethem’s generous gift of 18 works from his collection to the museum. Lethem is well known for such novels as Motherless Brooklyn (1999), The Fortress of Solitude (2003), and Brooklyn Crime Novel (2023); he is also a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, among other literary recognitions. His first volume of collected art writing, Cellophane Bricks: A Life in Visual Culture, forms the foundation of Jonathan Lethem’s Parallel Play, an exhibition that features artwork from or related to his personal collection, often acquired in a fluid system of exchange with artists and galleries. Punchy wit, verve, humor, history, creative fluidity—all are on display in both visual and literary form this spring at the Benton.
The opening event for the exhibition, featuring Lethem and a panel of artists, will be Saturday, February 15 from 4 to 7 pm.
Jonathan Lethem’s Parallel Play presents more than 60 works from Lethem’s personal collection. The works are presented with excerpts from Lethem’s original words about the works, revisited in the present by Lethem, the exhibition’s co-curator Solomon Salim Moore, or the artists themselves. As a result, the exhibition is not solely about the works on view but the process of creative exchanges across mediums, genres, and time. It is a call-and-response—between artists, between writing and the visual arts, between ideas and material forms. Lethem’s generous practice offers a model for thinking broadly about contemporary art and also about how the act of writing is intimately intertwined with the process of making physical objects.
Opening Celebration
Saturday, February 15
4 to 7 pm
Co-curators Jonathan Lethem and Solomon Salim Moore host artists Julia Jacquette and Mark Johnson in a lively conversation about creative practice and collaboration. A reception follows.
Look, Shift, Return
Saturday, March 1
1 to 7 pm
Co-curators Jonathan Lethem and Solomon Salim Moore host a day of writing out loud at the Benton.
Old-school manual typewriters will be available for a communal writing experience led by Lethem and Moore, and inspired by the Benton’s Parallel Play exhibition, which features artworks emphasizing appropriation, fan-art, cartooning, and the junction of language and image.
Jonathan Lethem’s Parallel Play: Contemporary Art and Art Writing is curated by Solomon Salim Moore, assistant curator of collections, and Jonathan Lethem, with curatorial interns Ava Monheit PZ ’27 and Serena Li PO ’26. Programs related to the exhibition have been supported by the Pomona College English Department.
About the Author
Jonathan Lethem is the author of Brooklyn Crime Novel and twelve other novels. His stories and essays have been collected in five volumes, and his work translated into over thirty languages. He has been recipient of The National Book Critics Circle Award, The World Fantasy Award, The Berlin Prize, and a MacArthur Fellowship.
About the Venue:
The Benton Museum of Art makes the visual arts an essential part of the experience of all Pomona College students as well as members of its resident communities. The Museum utilizes carefully designed, lively, and innovative exhibitions and programs to link the creative energy of making art and experiencing art. It envisions its collections as a teaching resource, emphasizing first-hand conversation with art objects as a tool for increasing visual literacy and investigating the diversity of human experience.
All exhibitions and programs are free of charge and open to the public.
Media Contact:
Erin Hogan
benton.communications@pomona.edu
(909) 607-2291
A rapturous, ravenous celebration of visual art and storytelling from one of our most innovative writers and critical minds.
Release: Jul 30, 2024
Hardcover ISBN: 9798988670001 • 424 pages
UK release: Sep 19, 2024 • UK Price: £30
