In Discussion with Artist Jude Griebel at BMAC

In his intricately detailed sculptures, ceramics, and drawings currently on view at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) – including a six-foot-tall roasted chicken – artist Jude Griebel explores the relationships between humans and the animals we consume. On Saturday, April 11, at 5:30 p.m., Canadian artist Jude Griebel and Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) Director of Exhibitions Sarah Freeman will discuss Griebel's work and his exhibition, "Elegy for the Consumed." "The works in 'Elegy for the Consumed' generate myriad questions surrounding lives that often remain hidden from us even as they impact us on an individual, daily basis," said Griebel in a press release. "While the work does not condemn meat eating, it imagines a system that prioritizes transparency, dignity, and reverence regarding the species that sustain us." As Griebel wrote on his website about his medium and conception: "Sculptures and drawings visualize society's conflicted entanglement with the natural world, using intricate craftwork to explore the collective shaping of ecological collapse." In his exhibit at BMAC, and traditional of the artist, his humor meets "pathos, drawing on anthropomorphism and decorative arts traditions in an attempt to reconcile our emotional connections to animals with systems of consumption," according to the BMAC press release. Still, as his website states, his art inspires a bigger conversation about how "these pieces are equally hopeful in their display of nature's agency and resistance; their transformative qualities and looming physical scale speaking to both their resilience and capacity to outlast human counterparts." His work has certainly garnered attention, with countless solo shows, group exhibitions, interviews, residences, publications and accolades. Griebel's work has been supported by residencies at Pioneer Works, the International Studio & Curatorial Program, and Yaddo. He has received major grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Canada Council for the Arts, Calgary Arts Development, and the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation. "Elegy for the Consumed" is on view at BMAC through July 5, 2026.For more information, visit brattleboromuseum.org.