PHILADELPHIA (November 26, 2007) – Two videos by the first artist-in-residence at The University of the Arts, critically-acclaimed Portuguese native Vasco Araújo, comprise the exhibition Facing the Others: Recent Video Work at UArts Gershman Hall. The exhibition runs from November 29 - December 13 and is open to the public from 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. every day. A reception will be held on opening night from 6 - 8 p.m.

Araújo’s work deals lyrically with representations of gender and the other, often using classical music as a catalyst. The first video, Girl of the Golden West (2004), is based on the euphoniously titled Puccini opera. In it, Araújo uses an African American female protagonist to skew and deconstruct the racial dynamics of the opera as commentary on civil rights. About Being Different (2007), inspired by the Benjamin Britten opera Peter Grimes, was the result of a two-month residency at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Newcastle/Gateshead England. In this video, five vicars were interviewed about concepts of marginality and community creating a dialog about what it means to be different from the norms and uniformity of society.

Facing the Others is Araújo’s first exhibition in Philadelphia. His works have been shown widely in Europe and the Americas, Venice Biennial (2005), Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2005), Stedelijk Museum in Ghent, Belgium (2005), Gulbenkian Foundation (2005) and Contemporary Art Museum, Houston (2004). For additional information, visit www.vascoaraujo.org.

 Programs of the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery are supported by the Exhibitions Program of The University of the Arts. The gallery is free and open to the public.