Keri Straka: Pray Animal
Boston Sculptors
By: BS - Oct 08, 2026
Boston Sculptors Gallery presents Keri Straka: Pray Animal, on view November 5 – December 6, 2026. Straka’s sculptural assemblages implore the viewer to internally negotiate how prayer is used to regulate and soothe in the presence of danger. Is it instinct to pray when you are prey? Like beads on a rosary, strings of words repeat in silent loops inside the corridors of a brain overburdened with the obligation to remain sweet and docile.
Blurring the border between hunting and devotion, Pray Animal examines the autonomic nervous system’s response when agency is stripped away. Dark animal silhouettes—deer, rabbits, fawns, and snakes—stand is as vessels for women’s bodies in states of appeasement and paralysis.
The installation relies on a precarious material dialectic: the weight of brick-textured stoneware against delicate porcelain blooms, gossamer nylon, grandmotherly bone china, and reflective compact mirrors. Through the interplay of shadow, beauty, and reflection, the work reframes the freeze response not as passivity, but as a hardwired, instinctual posture of preservation.
Keri Straka holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a concentration in Ceramics. She is a professor of ceramics at Framingham State University, and maintains her studio at The Distillery Arts Community in South Boston.
Keri Straka: Pray Animal
November 5 – December 6, 2026
Artists’ Reception & Talks
Saturday, November 14, 2 – 5pm, Talks at 3pm
First Friday Receptions
November 6 & December 4, 5 – 8:30pm
Gallery Hours
Wed, Thur, Sat, Sun 11am – 5pm, Fri 11am – 7pm
Contacts:
Almitra Stanley, Director
Boston Sculptors Gallery
617.501.5600
Keri Straka, Artist
617.510.0949
486 Harrison Avenue
Boston, MA 02118