Nidhi Gandhi '15 and the Curatorial Challenges and Rewards of "Resonant Minds" Exhibit at the Pomona College Museum of Art by Sneha Abraham, Pomona College News
Curating a museum exhibition is a major undertaking under any circumstances. Curating an exhibit like “Resonant Minds: Abstraction and Perception”—an exploration of art and neuroscientific research about the way we respond to abstract art due to its aesthetic qualities—was particularly complex and ambitious. When she explains the scope of her project to others, Nidhi Gandhi ’15 says, “People think I’m insane.”
Gandhi culled the 16 pieces on exhibit from approximately 500 abstract works at the Pomona College Museum of Art as a Benton Summer Undergraduate Research Program research assistant last summer. The artworks she selected include lithography, paintings, woodcuts, computer prints and photograms—all of which utilize illusion, shadow and light, color sensitivity and more, demonstrating ways in which our minds process perceptions biologically, psychologically and evolutionarily.