Oliver Jeffers in Boston
Earlier this week, Hadley was invited to experience a private performance by Oliver Jeffers, as part of his Dipped Paintings series at Praise Shadows Gallery in Brookline, MA.
The project was special as Jeffers creates a portrait in private, then stages a performance where the completed painting is submerged in enamel paint, permanently obscuring it from view. Only a small group of witnesses are invited to see the portrait in its entirety for the first - and last - time. From that point on, the painting exists only in memory.
The dipping is a deceptively simple act. The portrait is lowered into paint, slowly and deliberately, until it disappears. At the same time, a sheet of paper covered in words from the sitter’s interview is also veiled beneath the falling drips. The gesture becomes a meditation on impermanence, memory, and storytelling - reminding us that art, like life, is always shifting and never fully fixed.
At the conclusion, Jeffers offers a whiskey toast:
“What is done is done, and what is yet to come.”
The toast, both communal and personal, becomes part of the performance. Each witness leaves with their own version of the memory, already altered in small ways by perception and recall.
Jeffers’ focus on memory is one of the most compelling aspects of the project. After each performance, participants are asked to take part in a short interview, recounting what they remember, what they thought they saw. The results inevitably differ - details shift, fade, or contradict.
Much of the art world revolves around preservation, cataloguing, and permanence. Jeffers’ Dipped Paintings disrupt that impulse, asking us to reflect instead on what it means for art to live only in a fleeting moment.
For Hadley, the performance was meaningful because it required the viewer’s full attention, everyone who was there, was in the moment, together, with no other distractions. Coming from a traditional fine art background, the experience of watching the masterful portrait be “dipped” was counter to any sort of artistic preservation she had ever been taught. The intentional destruction, or rebirth, changed the painting forever, but also created a tension around how we preserve memories. I think any paintings conservator would have been squirming! I can’t imagine if a fine art insurance professional was there! It was definitely a night that she will be thinking about for a long time.
The series is nearing its conclusion, with only a handful of new works to be made before Jeffers closes it in 2027 at the Ulster Museum in Belfast. That makes this Boston presentation not only rare, but historic.
Boston is not always the first city on the international art circuit, which makes this exhibition even more significant. To host Jeffers’ work here is to position the city within a global dialogue about art, mortality, and memory. Praise Shadows’ thoughtful, intimate approach makes it the perfect setting for such a powerful project.
Oliver Jeffers’ Dipped Paintings are less about the object that hangs on a wall, and more about the encounter you carry away with you. That Boston is one of the few places where this work can be experienced is phenomenal and one we are excited for what this exhibition means for the Boston art landscape!
About the Artist
Oliver Jeffers MBE (b.1977, Belfast) is a visual artist, author, and advocate whose practice spans painting, sculpture, bookmaking, and public projects. Best known to many for his award-winning picture books - New York Times #1 bestsellers translated into 49 languages and sold in nearly 15 million copies - Jeffers is also internationally recognized for ambitious artworks that explore time, memory, and our place in the universe.
His projects include For All We Know, The Moon, the Earth, and Us, and Our Place in Space, as well as his ongoing Dipped Paintings. Beyond the studio, Jeffers h
as spoken on the main stage at TED, participated in COP26, and appeared at the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual conference. His essays have been published in TIME and The New York Times. Across mediums, his work invites people to see the world differently - offering fresh context, hope, and perspective in a rapidly changing time.
Written by Anne Cabot