Photographer and artist Matthew Rolston engages in conversation with a leading cultural critic to explore Vanitas: The Palermo Portraits, his latest fine art series and limited-edition book from Nazraeli Press.
Created in the shadowed corridors of Palermo’s Capuchin Catacombs, Vanitas offers an unblinking encounter with centuries-old Christian mummies – faces held in a delicate suspension between life and oblivion. Through painterly hues and sculptural light, Rolston renders them not as relics, but as haunting presences, radiant with memory and loss. The work meditates on the fragility of the flesh, the persistence of devotion, and the mystery of what waits beyond.
The talk concludes with a book signing by the artist.
FREE with RSVP:
https://www.artcenter.edu/connect/events/matthew-rolston-vanitas-the-palermo-portraits.html
