The literal and figurative fires racism ignites will be the focus of the Cape Cod Museum of Art’s exhibit “Fragile,” featuring the paintings of artists Frank Anigbo and Richard Neal, and the poetry of writer and visual artist Lauren Wolk. 

While Anigbo’s paintings, done in an ethereal palette, focus on the vulnerability of families living in a racist world, Neal’s works are radically different, bold, dark, often depicting infernos in the act of destroying human creation. Together the two present a study in contrast.

In his artist’s statement, Neal says, he feels that “people and things, structures and systems are in a never-ending condition of pulling together and breaking apart.”

On his website Anigbo says he paints to “facilitate conversations with myself beyond what I am able to achieve outside the act of painting.”

All of the artists involved with “Fragile” hope the exhibit does evoke conversations. 

Benton Jones, the museum’s director, says the two artists’ works are like, “oil and water.”

“The juxtaposition of ferocious destruction and vignettes of familial intimacy work to emphasize each other,” Jones says, adding the exhibition exposes the fragile side of being human in a harsh world; the creation of innocence and the destruction of innocence. 

Weaving together the images, Wolk, as a guest curator, will share poetry that documents the unfortunate events of our times. Wolk is the author of five novels. She is a poet and visual artist. When she first saw the artists’ works and considered them being shown together, Wolk says she was struck by the contrast of...