The exploration of the human condition has been an intriguing subject matter throughout the history of anthropology, art, biology, history, literature, philosophy, psychology, and religion. But where most of those studies and systems used words to present the pondered and analyzed perspectives or impose conclusions, visual art used images as a form of communication. Not limited by reality or burdened by factuality, freed of contexts and traditions, this universal approach allows for touching on most bewildering phenomenons and "speaking" about the difficult or inexplicable paradoxes through the depiction of the vessel itself.
To Bodily Go... at The M Building in Miami brings an intersection of where contemporary figurative painting and sculpture are being pushed, with a focus on the nihilistic depiction of the human body. Boldly going beyond what's familiar, known, and certain, these artists are merely using the familiar, natural shapes to attract the eye, but only to transform those into a black hole of surreal imagination or morph back into recognizable outlines of a figure. Harnessing the energy, the frustration, and the confusion, there is a sense of physicality to the work that often clashes with the purified aesthetics of the contemporary world while not hiding its influence. Allowing for the substances to do their thing, for colors to mix, for the canvas to absorb, for layers to build textures, for ceramic to crack, or for latex to bulge or deflate, they are leaving the unmistakable mark of their process sealed into each piece. Experimenting with techniques, materials, and mediums, they are wielding mistakes, illogic choices, and odd decisions to convey the complexity and contradiction that defines self. The self, which is fed on experiences, emotions, and observations, abandons the limits of the body in order to give room for a more fluid, amorphous representation of what being human and feeling human might actually be.
Self: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the vessel in guise. Its premier mission: to explore strange true worlds. To seek out new life and new imaginations. To bodily go where no man has gone before!
The exhibition features new works by Ben Quilty · Vilte Fuller · Landon Pointer · Thom Trojanowski · Filip Mirazović · Julius Hofmann · Judith Grassl · Colleen Barry · Davor Gromilović · Mai Blanco · Benedikt Hipp · Loren Erdrich · Mathilda Marque Bouaret · Simon Foxall · Marieke Bolhuis · Tim Brawner · Santiago Evans Canales · Magda Kirk · Jamie Gray Williams · Folkert de Jong
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