Erie Art Museum Features Kimberly Chapman Work in New Exhibition Eighty-Six Reasons For Asylum Admission

ERIE, Pa. - Eighty-Six Reasons For Asylum Admission opens at the Erie Art Museum on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022. The exhibition includes sculptures and paintings by Kimberly Chapman inspired by the West Virginia Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum’s “Reasons for Admission” that inventoried preconditions for mental illness. Chapman is a full-time porcelain sculptor in Cleveland, Ohio and has been featured in several group and solo exhibitions across the state. Her work has also recently been featured in the 98th and 99th Nicole & Harry Martin Spring Show at the Erie Art Museum.

Eighty-Six Reasons explores how and why women were sent to asylums in the 19th and 20th centuries and examines the unfair and misconstrued diagnoses and treatments they received at the hands of medical misogyny. Chapman explains, “My work sheds light on dark topics – specifically what women endure. It’s in my DNA to heavily research past and present offenses and find creative ways to make something solid that says; ‘This really happened and is still happening today in one form or another.’”

Eighty-Six Reasons will be featured on the 2nd floor of the Museum’s Hagen Gallery from Oct. 20, 2022 through May 14, 2023. An artist-led tour will take place on Oct. 20 at the opening of the exhibition at 6:00 pm.

For more information, please contact Eric Dye, Marketing Director, eric.dye@erieartmuseum.org