Exhibition explores mortality, transition and the preciousness of life through contemporary art
What does it mean to remember that life is finite and how might that awareness change the way we live? Guilford Art Center invites the public to explore these questions in Remember You Must Live: On Life, Loss, and Impermanence, a group exhibition on view October 9-30, 2026.
The community is invited to free opening reception on Saturday, October 10 from 2PM – 4PM.
Grounded in the centuries-old concept of memento mori, which translates to “remember that you die,” Remember You Must Live turns the awareness of our mortality into an invitation to embrace the preciousness of life. Rather than focusing on fear, darkness or spectacle, the exhibition encourages reflection on cycles, transitions, and presence.
The exhibition brings together work by artists from Connecticut and throughout New England, offering a diverse range of perspectives and artistic approaches to themes of life, loss, change and impermanence. Through a variety of media and creative practices, exhibiting artists consider what we leave behind, what we carry forward and what makes life meaningful precisely because it does not last forever.
“Remember You Must Live is ultimately less about death than it is about paying attention to life,” says Maureen Belden, Guilford Art Center Executive Director. “The exhibition asks us to pause and consider the beauty and complexity of being alive. It encourages us to recognize how an awareness of impermanence can deepen our appreciation of the present.”
“I think that focusing on death through a fearful lens, robs us of the gift that is being alive” says Ashley Seneco, GAC Education Coordinator. “Remember You Must Live reminds us that although our time is finite, we have opportunities to seek kindness and connection while we are here.”
The title, Remember You Must Live, intentionally shifts the traditional memento mori message from a reminder of death to an invitation to embrace life. The works on view encourage viewers to contemplate personal and universal experiences of change, aging, grief, memory, renewal and transformation.
Exhibition Details
Remember You Must Live: On Life, Loss, and Impermanence
October 9 – 30, 2026
Free opening reception on Saturday, October 10 from 2PM – 4PM.
Guilford Art Center Gallery
411 Church Street, Guilford, Connecticut
The exhibition is free and open to the public during Guilford Art Center’s regular hours.
For more information about the exhibition, gallery hours and upcoming programs, visit Guilford Art Center.
Guilford Art Center
Guilford Art Center is a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to promoting and teaching the arts through exhibitions, classes, events and opportunities for artists and the community. Located in the heart of Guilford, Connecticut, the Art Center presents contemporary craft and art exhibitions while providing opportunities for people of all ages and experience levels to learn, create and engage with the arts.
