Curator: John David O’Brien
Artists: Kelly Berg, Richard Bruland, Sigrid Burton, Jennifer Faist, Yoko Iida, Jenny Okun, Soojung Park
Terminal 7 Gallery, post-security
There are words that when put together in commonly used sentences become part of a shared vocabulary. “Out of the blue” is one of those. The meaning of this phrase can be quite variable as in something appearing completely unexpectedly, seemingly out of nowhere. In this very place, where people are traveling beyond their normal orbits, there is the potential for one to see or experience something new or astonishing.
In this exhibition, “out of the blue” references perceptual attentiveness to visual components of art, specifically color and form. The seven artists in this exhibition investigate these elements to delve into their own perceptions. Once they have created a residue of that experience, it is left for you, the viewer, to unravel and relive in your own imagination. By removing that which is referential, the artist challenges us to recognize something that is familiar from the world. In essentializing the details from which they have drawn their inspiration, the artists give us a gift with a question tucked inside. The gift is something entirely other than that which was in the world before. The question is, what do you see?
These artists also trace the ways in which colors interact with one another and materialize in our consciousness almost without verbal meaning or, at the very least, making themselves very hard to describe exactly. These artists display their dexterity with color by experimenting with unexpected pairings or by using innovative techniques. When something surprising happens, it is like a rupture in the texture of the expected that ushers in the unexpected and suddenly there it is. Out of the blue.
Photos courtesy of SKA Studios LLC. Click image to zoom.