NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) Arts and Culture (MAC) will host an artist talk and book signing with photographer Lydia Panas from 5-7 p.m. on Friday, June 3, at MCLA Gallery 51 on Main Street. 

 

A screening of Panas' work will follow at MASS MoCA from 9-10 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.  

 

Panas' recent work, "Sleeping Beauty" a series of photographs and video installations, has been exhibited across the country. According to a press release, this series of color portraits of reclining women and girls reverses roles, with the artist's and models' gazes intertwined, incorporating the viewer as participant in an often uncomfortable connection.  

 

After an artist talk at 5:30 p.m., Panas will sign copies of "Sleeping Beauty," which was named one of the best photography books of 2021 by PopPhoto.   

 

Lydia Panas is a visual artist working with photography and video. A first-generation American, she was raised between Greece and the United States. All her work is made in the fields, the forests, and the studio of her seventy-acre farm in Pennsylvania. 

 

Panas' work has been exhibited widely in the U.S. and internationally. Her photographs are represented in public and private collections including the Brooklyn Museum, Bronx Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Palm Springs Art Museum, Allentown Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, Museum of Photographic Arts San Diego, and the Sheldon Museum among others. 

 

Her work has appeared in many periodicals such as The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, The Village Voice, French Photo, and Hyperallergic. Panas has degrees from Boston College, School of Visual Arts, and New York University/International Center of Photography. She is the recipient of a Whitney Museum Independent Study Fellowship and a CFEVA Fellowship. She has three monographs, "The Mark of Abel" (Kehrer Verlag 2012), "Falling from Grace" (Conveyor Arts 2016) and, "Sleeping Beauty" (MW Editions 2021).