Curated by Michael Mahalchick
Featuring artists from the Creative Growth Art Center
Hand to hand, human-to-human, face-to-face, every day is a negotiation, every person is a star. Alike in our singularity we navigate our environment as rulers, taking measure of our world and our place in it. Occasionally, the stars align in significant ways. Chance meetings lead to common paths shared by uncommon associates who share more than their differences suggest. Questions arise and conversations are provoked. Who do we think we are? Who do you think they are? Who do you think you are?
The artists in Vis-à-vis present us with views of a world of humans, with all of their idiosyncrasies⎯ struggling, searching, working, loving, praying, meditating, communing, posing, learning, hoping, wishing, dreaming⎯asking us to consider where we stand in relation to others and whether we are really that different and how much those differences matter. Vis-à-vis imagines the exhibition as a kind of "meet market" where each individual can enter and be considered on their own terms and feel at home in the public square.
Many of the artists included in Vis-à-vis create their work at the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California. The Creative Growth Art Center serves adult artists with developmental, mental and physical disabilities. Vis-à-vis situates their work within the broader art community in a way that allows viewers to approach all of the work in the exhibition "face-to-face," on equal footing, without regard for the artist's perceived status while highlighting the commonalities inherent in all artists depicting aspects of the human condition. Conceived as mixer/social/party for a community of disparate artists, Vis-à-vis invites everyone to come as they are.
Vis-à-vis features the work of Ying Gee Zhou, Huma Bhabha, Kim Clark, Ion Birch, Aurie Ramirez, Elizabeth Jaeger, Dwight Macintosh, Jeff Schwarz, Terri Bowden, Willem de Kooning, Sherrie Arandanas, luciana achugar, William Scott, Marcos Rosales, Donald Mitchell, and Paulino Martin.
Please join us for an artist reception and a performance of luciana achugar's "The Pleasure Project" on Saturday, January 24th from 6-8pm.