Democracy of the Land: The Cold Warmth

Friday, February 6, 2026, from 4:00 – 5:00 pm, followed by Q/A with Director of Art Benton Jones

Locally sourced inter-spatial artist, writer, and activist Jay Critchley continues his long-term exploration of and connection with the Land - its vernacular, its materiality, its rights, and its primacy to our health and wellbeing, as well as that of the planet. The personal is planetary.

Democracy of the Land: The Cold Warmth visually and performatively explores the breakdown and remapping of political and cultural boundaries, the military buildup, authoritarianism and free speech, and the purging of environmental regulations. How will The Whiteness House’s enchantment with dictators affect our international relations, our culture, and our economics? The lonely US Flag looms over the debacle.

What does it mean to be an American? A patriot? A world leader?

Jay Critchley has taught at the Museum School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (Tufts), and has had residencies at: Harvard University (where he lectured); AS220 in Providence, RI; Williams College in Williamstown, MA; Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT; Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, NYC; Milepost 5 in Portland, OR; Fundacion Valparaiso, Mojacar, Andalucia, Spain; CAMAC, Marnay-sur-Seine, France; the Santa Fe Art Institute, NM; and Manship Artists Residency in Gloucester, MA. View Critchley's TEDx Talk: Portrait of the artist as a corporation.

His movie, Toilet Treatments, won an HBO Award, and his 2015 survey show at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum traveled to Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. He won a controversial Trademark from the US for his Old Glory Condom Corporation patriotic condoms. He has received awards from the Boston Society of Architects for his visionary, environmental proposal, Martucket Eyeland Resort & Theme Park, and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in NYC for his Big Dig project, The Big Twig. He recently gave the keynote speech at the UK Conference on Menstruation and Sustainability in St. Andrews, Scotland, where he performed a ceremony on the North Sea as Miss Tampon Liberty.

Critchley was honored in 2012 by the Massachusetts State Legislature as an artist and founder and director of the Provincetown Community Compact, producer of the Swim for Life, which has raised over $7 million for AIDS, women’s health, and the community. The 38th Swim for Life was held on September 6, 2025. 

This event is presented in conjunction with:

VISUAL VOICE: Freedom to Create.

On view January 29 - April 26, 2026

Cancellation policy: CCMoA must be notified 1 week prior for a refund.