From the press release by gallery owner and co-curator, Michelle Silver: “Confronting childhood trauma is a complicated journey, and filmmaker Sarah Hanssen has invited her art community to help her heal. As a child, Sarah was sexually abused by her father Peter Hanssen, who left her his abstract expressionist paintings after he passed. Sarah grew up in his studio, surrounded by the smells of gin and turpentine, ever shifting canvases and a string of his young girlfriends, and now has a difficult relationship with her father’s paintings that conceal mixed messages of obsession, secrets, freedom and selfishness. As part of a multi-phase creative project documenting her healing journey and culminating in a feature documentary film Two Things Are True, Sarah has invited over 30 artists to rework her father’s paintings and redefine their place in her family’s future. This December through January, Distortion Society’s Gallery Director Michelle Silver collaborates with Sarah Hanssen to co-curate a dynamic selection of these works. The group exhibition Two Things Are True opens December 14, 2024, with an opening reception from 7-9:30pm.”
