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Indepth Arts News:
"Cosmos and Chaos: A Cultural Paradox"
2004-02-01 until 2004-04-30
Roberson Museum and Science Center
Binghamton, NY,
USA United States of America
The Roberson Museum and Science Center in Binghamton, New York presents
"Cosmos & Chaos: A Cultural Paradox" from February 1 - April 30, 2004. A
reception open to the public will be held in the museum's Sears Harkness
Hall on Sunday, February 8th from 2-4 PM. Organized by the Roberson Museum
and Science Center with guest curator Hall Groat II, this exhibition will
feature the work of several contemporary artists and their diverse views on
art. The exhibition is deliberately composed of work that is polarized in
nature, reflecting the diversity in our culture and the need for artists to
convey their viewpoints on the issues of today, such as religion, politics,
and family.
The breadth of work presented offers us an opportunity to both
examine and reflect on how the postmodern artist has evolved over the past
few decades. It provides the viewer insight into the meaning behind the art
and the cultural forces that may have influenced the artist.
In the process of making art, the artist struggles with the seemingly
opposing forces that have always existed since the beginning of time-cosmos
and chaos. The general perception is that these forces are always at odds,
but we need to pursue the wider understanding of how they are
interdependent. From a Christian perspective, chaotic events are subsumed
under the wider providence of God. Under Darwinism, the belief is that
nature uses chaos constructively to provide biological systems with access
to new forms. Order and chaos have always been preeminent forces that shape
and define nearly every aspect of life. These omnipresent forces are
present when the artist is faced with life transitions such as birth and
death, with world issues of war and peace, along with the struggles faced in
everyday life. Undoubtedly, our perception affects how we interpret their
art as much as it affects the creative process of making art.
In the exhibit, artists deal with issues of destruction and order. Don
Demauro and Ron Gonzalez, although different in their individual approaches
to creating art, both address the concept of mortality and the passage of
time. More directly, Jerome Witkin confronts mor-tality in an emotional
narrative depicting scenes from the Holocaust. Equally as diverse is the
work of Nancy Ryan and Joy Adams who delve into the world of gender and the
aging process of women. The dynamic abstract paintings of Ib Benoh and
James Bohary are characterized by the search for new reality in a world of
chaos. Perceiving reality in a different way, artists Lucian Freud, Eric
Fischl and Aubrey Schwartz consider the human form, choosing to distort it
to reach their truth. Marc Dennis and Hall Groat II work with metaphorical
imagery that often suggests several paradoxical outcomes. Both Daniel
Mosner and Luvon Sheppard are concerned with achieving a certain presence in
their work that stems from their emotional connection and struggles with the
subject itself. Every artist in this group is uniquely different, but
together as a group is an undeniable synergy.
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