Arts + Literature Laboratory presents Stories: Words & Images, an exhibition by Randall Berndt, on display from Friday, January 2 through Saturday, February 21, 2026.
An opening reception for all current exhibitions will be held on Saturday, January 10, 2026 from 5:00pm to 7:00pm and a dedicated event will be held on Saturday, January 17, 2026 from 3:00pm to 5:00pm to celebrate the launch of Randall Berndt's forthcoming book, Stories: Words & Images.
This exhibition features works from Stories: Words & Images, the artist's book providing a retrospective view of Randall Berndt's rich practice. In the book and exhibition, Berndt embraces the marriage of image and text, creating what he describes as something like "elaborate cartoons that have need of elaborate captions."
The paintings and drawings presented in the gallery were created first, with stories composed afterward to guide viewers through Berndt's sophisticated and densely layered compositions. Berndt's art celebrates the rich interplay between visual experience and narrative meaning. The exhibition moves through past and present, blending fact and fiction in a humor-filled parade that navigates the artist's evolving relationship with art-making.
The exhibition reflects Berndt's artistic journey across a decades-long career and celebrates both the "meaningful marks of pencil and brush and print on paper" and the stories that bring them to life.
