From billion-dollar ballrooms to the homelessness crisis to Montpelier’s water mains, the world is broken. John Stomberg is obsessed with the idea of fixing it. The longtime art historian and scholar has been director of Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum for the past 10 years. Now retiring from that distinguished career, Stomberg is ramping up his own art practice. In “World Repair,” a solo show of paintings at AVA Gallery and Art Center in Lebanon, N.H., he’s bringing together Jewish philosophy, Japanese ceramic techniques and Pink Floyd, naturally. He explores the concept of tikkun olam — the actions needed to repair the world — with gold lines that mend disparate areas of color. That’s a nod to kintsugi, the Japanese technique of repairing broken pottery with the melted metal. In a reference to the Floydian song lyric “Well, you wore out your welcome with random precision,” his sharp, geometric forms vacillate between chaos and exactitude. While we’re sure Stomberg will always be welcome in the Upper Valley, we wish him well in his next chapter. Shine on, you crazy diamond. ➆

‘World Repair: Recent Paintings by John Stomberg’ On view June 18 to August 15 at AVA Gallery and Art Center in Lebanon, N.H. Reception, Thursday, June 18, 5-7 p.m.; artist talk, Friday, July 10, 5:30-6:30 p.m.

This article appears in June 17 • 2026.

Alice Dodge joined Seven Days in April 2024 as visual arts editor and proofreader. She earned a bachelor's degree at Oberlin College and an MFA in visual studies at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She previously worked at the Center for Arts...