Join us for an engaging discussion between exhibiting artists Christian Sampson (American, b. 1974) and Claudia Peña Salinas (Mexican American, b. 1975), who have known each since their student years at Hunter College in New York City and whose works on view at the MFA each address the astronomical calendar.

Claudia Peña Salinas and Christian Sampson | Earth and Sun
Thursday, April 18
6:00 – 7:00 pm
FREE for MFA Members; $15 for Not-Yet Members

Peña Salinas is a research-based artist whose work makes reference architectural and art historical minimalism as well as to ancient Mesoamerican history and craft. Her site-specific installation and sculpture Ahua Can references Chichen Itza, the great Maya city, which flourished from about 900-1200 CE. Its inhabitants used the sophisticated writing, calendrical, and astronomical systems developed by their ancestors.

Sampson is a multimedia artist whose practice is anchored largely by philosophies related to the Light and Space movement that originated in California in the 1960s, particularly the ideas of ephemerality and optical perception. The artist’s Tempus volat, hora fugit, is a four-part iterative installation that took place over the course of 2023 in the Museum’s Conservatory, according to the astronomical calendar. Translated from Latin to “time flies, hours flee,” it is an immersive exploration of color and form, as well as an exercise in confronting and contemplating the vastness of the universe and our place within it.

Peña Salinas was born in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. She earned her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA from Hunter College, New York. Peña Salinas has exhibited at institutions including Centre Pompidou, Paris; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; El Museo del Barrio, New York; El Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico; and Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico. The artist lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Sampson earned a BFA from Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, FL, and an MFA from Hunter College, NYC. His works have been exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, FR and Centre Pompidou-Metz, Lorraine, FR (curator Pascal Rousseau); the Sarasota Museum of Art, Sarasota, Hunter College, New York, NY; Pablo’s Birthday, New York, NY; Dorsky Foundation Gallery, New York; a Domaine Les Crayeres Park, Reims, France, among many others. Sampson lives and works in Los Angeles, California, and Sarasota, Florida. In addition to an active studio practice and several upcoming exhibitions, he recently completed a public art installation made of laminated colored glass for a Brooklyn public elementary school.