“We are a Constellation” Exhibit to Debut at Tang Museum

The Tang Museum at Skidmore College presents Mark Thomas Gibson: We Are a Constellation, a solo exhibition in which the Philadelphia-based American history painter connects recent American history with the responsibilities of citizenship today. It will be on view from August 22 through January 3, 2027.

A recurring figure in Gibson’s work is the Town Crier—a stand-in for the artist who rings a bell and delivers urgent announcements to fellow citizens. At the Tang, the Town Crier will move beyond Gibson’s pen and paper into the gallery. At 2 p.m. each day the gallery is open, a Skidmore student will enact the role of Town Crier and deliver two announcements: news from that date 250 years earlier and news from the present day. Together, the performances will create a record of this important year while asking how history is remembered, narrated, and made.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a monumental, three-part American flag that debuted at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 2025. Unfolding like the panels of a comic strip, the work features the flag transformed into choppy waves on one side and the Town Crier in the role of Paul Revere, sounding an alarm about threats to American democracy on the other. 

The exhibition takes its title from We Are a Constellation, a 2024 painting in the Tang collection that presents individual stars in the night sky connected to form an image of the United States. This symbolizes how we can be connected as citizens through voting.

“I’ve followed Mark’s work since Black Pulp!, the 2016 exhibition he co-curated with fellow artist William Villalongo,” said Ian Berry, Dayton Director and curator of the exhibition. “His art insists that history is neither distant nor settled, and I love that our students can become Town Criers each day, connecting news from the past with the events shaping our lives now. During the nation’s 250th anniversary and an election year, the exhibition asks us to be active, engaged citizens.”