Decayging: a Memento Mori
EXHIBITION :: OCT 11 - NOV 1, 2025
OPENING Reception :: Saturday, Oct 11, 7–10 pm
DEATH ACTIVIST Symposia :: Wednesday, Oct 15, 7–10 pm
Artist EUOLOGIES :: Wednesday, Oct 22, 7–10 pm
SIREN SONGS to Lure You to Your Death :: Saturday, Oct 25, 7–10 pm
DAY OF THE DEAD: Today We All Die :: Saturday, Nov 1, 6:30–9 pm
An exhibition curated by Jason Greenberg, Agitator member
@ jay_eye_guzzle / jasongreenberg400@gmail.com
The Memento Mori (Reminder of Death) emphasizes the sweetness/ripeness of being in the latter stages of life; concluding a timeline; nearing the end of usefulness; fulfilling life’s purpose.
Funerary and death-marking have been a part of human cultural, civic and religious traditions throughout time. The memento mori has been a recurring tradition in art making since before the Egyptian recordings in the Book of the Dead or the Flemish and Dutch painters codified memorial reminders of human mortality in vanitas still-life paintings; because death is ever-present.
Featuring these EXHIBITING ARTISTS:
ANGE ALTENHOFEN - @ange_altenhofen / angealtenhofen.com
ALONSO GALUE - @a.galue / agalue.com
MEL KEISER - @melkeiser / melkeiser.com
CHARLIE LEVIN - @girlcharlieart / art.girlcharlie.com
JUDI STRAHOTA - @judistrahota / judistrahota.com
LUNA RAIL - @lunaxrail / lunaxrail@gmail.com
IKE SCOTT - @__ikescott__ / gregscott4@gmail.com
ALEX WILSON - @alex_wilson_art_chicago / agitatorgallery.com
My curatorial purpose in developing Decayging, was to invite creative artists, cultural commentators and death activists to examine mortality and share their thoughts on its power and impact in our contemporary moment—as well as propose or model new ways of engaging the premise and practice of our death from more sustainable and constructive perspectives. The current industries of death are isolationist, overly protective and mired in fraught symbolism and rituals that figuratively deaden & “suck the life out of people.” These artists engage the power of death, poke at and ponder its significance and play with its implication in the modern human experiment. Looking at death conversely asks viewers to consider what is the meaning and value of (a) life. Please join me in facing “the end of all things,” and finding joy and a lifesblood of intention and connection spreading and seeping its way through the darkness of our inevitable demises…
- Jason Greenberg, Executive Curator & Agitator Member
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• Excerpted from the curator’s precis and vision statement. The full catalog with Artists’ profiles and critical essays is available through the gallery for purchase. Decayging catalog edited, designed & produced by Jason Greenberg / ART WORKS DESIGN 2025
The Shrouded, by Ike Scott