A Tiny Radiance In a Dark Place
May 7 - June 25, 2026
May 7, 2026
Opening Reception, 5 — 7 pm
Artist Conversation with Timothy Anglin Burgard, Curator FAMSF 4:30 pm
Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
Building on his career-long exploration of the pastoral, Darren Waterston’s latest body of work explores psychological visions of nature, using music as a source of visual inspiration. By immersing himself in compositions by Benjamin Britten, John Tavener, Philip Glass, and Nico Muhly, among others, Waterston’s practice has become a deep study of the synthesis of time, rhythm, and movement, allowing his paintings to unfold in syncopation with the musical spaces of his chosen compositions.
The Congregation of Tears
For well over a decade, I have been working to create a contemplative sanctuary as an immersive, multimedia work of art, building on my experience of creating Filthy Lucre at MassMoCA (later exhibited at the Smithsonian’s Freer-Sackler Gallery and at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London), but also taking inspiration from the existing artists’ chapels, such as the Portiuncula of Saint Francis in Assisi or Rothko’s chapel at The Menil in Houston.
For me, this project is not only an effort to immerse visitors in multi-dimensional aesthetic experience informed by history and shaped by collaboration with fellow artists I love, but also an attempt to create opportunities for all of us to slow down, get quiet, and contemplate how artists throughout time have reflected on the emotive capacity that is fundamental to human experience, and therefore transcends our differences. In this way, I see The Congregation of Tears as not just a timely work of art, but as a necessary intervention in a world we are all now struggling to understand and take part in.
Over the coming months we will be fundraising, starting fabrication trials, sourcing additional artisans, and securing our institutional partners for the exhibition. Construction of The Congregation of Tears, along with the coordination of the work’s other multi-dimensional elements, will wrap up in 2026, with exhibitions anticipated for 2027-2028.