February 27 - March 22
Main, Frable and Helena Davis Galleries
Proposal
We believe that the future of art lies in exchanging collective ideas in a poetic language that speaks to both the artistically esoteric and the uninitiated. We feel that the challenge facing artists today is to communicate in a contemporary language to a larger audience, which transcends the current dialogue: to bridge the gap that separates the academic from the popular. We think that the fundamental communicative nature of visual art lies in the tension between the emotive and articulate, the beautiful and sublime, the narrative and iconic, both clarity and subtlety. This new artistic language involves integrating all of these elements in surprising and innovative ways, but does not rely on surprise or innovation as its primary content. We draw inspiration from all of the past, but also claim our independence to represent the world we see through our own subjective vision. Steering a course between these dichotomies is difficult, if not nearly impossible, but this is the nature of aspiring to create a masterpiece.
Above all we emphasize the relevance and necessity of technical skill, and indeed beauty, in the realm of contemporary art. We think that a great work of art requires three fundamental elements: intelligence, passion, and skill. Rather than negating meaning through deconstructive philosophy, and rather than presenting cold, purely intellectual art, we hope to present an alternative body of work which combines intellectual, emotional, and aesthetic content in a way that seduces and speaks to the viewer. We feel that post-modernism philosophy tends to disconnect from the viewer because post-modern artists attempt to communicate verbal ideas through a visual medium. We choose to communicate visual ideas through a visual medium, and verbal ideas through a verbal medium. This is not to say that verbal ideas cannot be communicated, but that they must be filtered and reconstructed to be intelligible, which requires a technical knowledge of one's medium.
Building on our belief that deconstruction is a process and not a philosophical conclusion; we propose to appeal to the emotions, to the spirit, to the body, as well as the mind. Thus we have chosen the theme of Reconstruction: to rebuild meaning, utilizing the technical mastery passed down to us by the Old Masters and the ideas and analytical tools passed on to us by all eras.
Project Description
There are approximately 30 works to be included. Varying in medium, size, and style, they will be mounted as a group exhibit, and will travel to several venues, both commercial and public. The paintings and drawings to be presented in the exhibition, products of the high standards of traditional studio training, also represent the sensibilities and personalities of the individual artists in their attempts to rise to the challenges of creating meaningful contemporary work.
Objectives
1. To reconnect with the public in an effort to build a greater engagement with the arts and therefore revitalize the interest in funding educational art programs.
2. To present a unified expression of the products and possibilities of a group of artists sensitive to the richness of the history of art, as well as the issues that universally confront mankind.
3. To raise awareness of the relevance of naturalistic, skillful, and/or beautiful art in the contemporary art world.
4. To offer the possibility of instruction and lectures by the exhibiting artists.
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Opening Reception Fourth Friday
February 27, 7-10 pm
Free and Open to the Public
Contributing Artists
Click on name for more info and images.
Richard T. Scott
The Art of the Short Story
Charles Philip Brooks
November Moonrise
Adam Miller
Leda
Jonathan Matthews
Before I Wake
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