Nancy Lupo's VEDA Exhibition Explores Meaning and Art

Nancy Lupo's exhibition at VEDA in Milan presents a text that weaves personal anecdotes with reflections on meaning in art. The show references the atmospheric phenomenon 'paraselene' and the Magic: The Gathering card of the same name, which dispels all enchantments. Lupo recounts a 2022 press release by Alan Longino for a scrapped 2019 show, where he admitted finding no meaning in her work. She recalls a 2002 conversation with Jim Brittingham in Flagstaff about not caring if her work meant anything, and a 2009 critique by Kate Levant questioning what happens in a vacuum of meaning. In 2024, Kazuna Taguchi invited Lupo to participate in 'A Reflection on the Sublime' at the Museum of Modern Art in Hiroshima, Japan, where Longino also contributed texts on cancer and the sublime. Lupo exhibited 'Closer to Faces,' featuring steel 'pig tail' posts borrowed from a construction contact through Naoko Sumi. On the exhibition's last day, a man in his 30s angrily stomped on one of the orange stakes, breaking a wax candelabra holder, and left when asked to wait.