Marsyas

Weatherford’s suite of paintings with neon lights attached are her response to Titian’s great late painting, “The Flaying of Marsyas.”

As the mortal Marsyas discovered when he challenged the god Apollo and was skinned alive for his trouble, there are some things you shouldn’t try to compete with.

“Marsyas is resigned to his fate. My works have been dealing with fate since 1986. I’m interested in the choice of whether to turn left or right.”

While Weatherford’s paintings often feature swirls of color, the Marsyas works — on view through Nov. 27 — are shadowy and somber, with dominant tones of black, gray, violet and silver.

With the Titian painting, which typically resides in Archbishop’s Palace in Kromeriz, Czech Republic, she wanted to ponder the thorny questions that it raises, given that Marsyas challenged Apollo to a musical competition, knowing he was likely to lose and pay a terrible price.