From left, Berkshirites Stephanie Kologanis, Tasja Keetman, Virginia Bradley, Diane Pearlman and Chris Malcomson at Bradley’s opening event for “Rapturous Alchemy: The Corallium Series” at the Palazzo Bembo, the European Cultural Centre, La Biennale Venezia.
By invitation of the European Cultural Centre, Berkshire artist Virginia Bradley has installed her exhibit “Rapturous Alchemy: The Corallium Series” at the Palazzo Bembo as part of the Venice Biennale, one of the great events in the art world which takes place every two years. Art lovers, curators and gallerists from all over the world attend the event.
Accompanied by several other Berkshirites (see photo above), Bradley opened her exhibit on April 18. The installation presents several large scale “Corallium“ works backlit on lightboxes in a dark room, which creates the ambience of being immersed in the sea. A goal of the project is to educate the public about the devastating effects of climate change on coral reefs. Last summer a severe heat wave caused ocean temperatures to rise off the coast of Florida. The high water temperatures immediately started a bleaching process and the reefs began dying. This process is occurring globally. Other factors devastating coral reefs are overfishing, marine pollution and the salinity of toxic rainfall (due to carbon emissions.) Healthy coral reefs are the fundamental building blocks of our marine eco-systems.
Bradley’s project has been supported by a grant from the Martha Boschen Porter Fund, a Fund of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.
Bradley is also filing exclusive reports from the Biennale for The Berkshire Edge. See her two previous reports here and here. She will resume her reporting next week.
More from the Corallium series can be seen at https://www.virginiabradley.com/rapturous-alchemy-the-corallium-series-in-venice-2024/
