Does This Taste Funny?

September 8 – December 13, 2026 | Opening reception Tuesday, September 8, 5-8 p.m.

Curated by Melissa Brown and John O'Connor

The Gallery at Heimbold Visual Arts Center and Lehman College Art Gallery are pleased to present Does This Taste Funny?, a two-venue group exhibition marking a collaboration between Sarah Lawrence College, where O'Connor is faculty in the Visual and Studio Arts Program, and Lehman College, CUNY, where Brown teaches in the Department of Art.

"Does This Taste Funny?" explores humor in contemporary art as a generative method for shifting perception. While humor in art is often mistaken for a lack of seriousness, other fields treat laughter as anything but trivial: developmental psychologists read early laughter as evidence of a mind forming expectations about the world, political theory recognizes the joke as a tool of dissent, and linguists study the punchline as a window into how meaning is built. This exhibition frames humor as a method to evade our preconceptions about the world, exposing incongruities in our political, personal, and institutional lives. Throughout the exhibition and its connected programming, the artwork serves as a catalyst for a dialogue that reaches across psychology, politics, the art world, philosophy, language, and comedy itself.

The Gallery at Heimbold Visual Arts Center: on view September 8 – December 13, 2026. Opening reception Tuesday, September 8, 5–8pm.

Lehman College Art Gallery: on view September 9, 2026 – January 16, 2027. Opening reception Wednesday, September 9, 5–8pm. lehmangallery.org