Robert M. Place "Caduceus" detail 2011
Just a reminder that the art show I curated, ALCHEMICALLY YOURS, is opening at Observatory on Saturday, May 7th via a reception from 7-10pm. Hope to see you there. The show will be up through Sunday, June 12th. Show info:
ALCHEMICALLY YOURS
Opening reception: Saturday, May 7th 7-10pm
On view: May 7th – June 12th, 2011
Gallery Hours: Thursdays & Fridays 3–6 PM, Saturdays & Sundays 12–6 PM
Alchemy is the art of transmutation. Of taking the rough and raw, and rendering it more precious. Rather than accepting the literal “lead into gold” definition, Carl Jung believed that alchemy is a process of individuation, a symbolic and active language which guides one’s personal journey toward the realization of selfhood. An alchemist is a shape-shifter, a mystic chemist. A patient and meticulous devotee who turns the base into something resplendent.
Like dreams, alchemy speaks in pictures. At first glimpse, alchemical manuscripts from the 16th and 17th centuries look like a panoply of hallucinations. They feature images of fornicating kings and queens. Suns and moons shining in stereo. Lions and serpents and eggs, oh my. Black and white and red all over. Secret codes and effulgent iconographies teeming with meaning, yet ultimately ineffable. These pictures beget picturing. They’re signs that beg to be resignified; to be reinterpreted and refined.
The participants in ALCHEMICALLY YOURS have done just that. Varying in medium and style, each piece in this exhibition pays homage to the alchemic tradition -- all the while affirming that the artist fills the role of alchemist in the present-day. For who better can elevate the mundane, turn the sub- into the sublime? From the prima materia of color and canvas comes great and vivid work.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
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