For The Contemporary Art Modern Project’s Westport Summer exhibition, we are mixing it up a little. Instead of our traditional one-theme exhibitions, this exhibition explores: time. Specifically, the artist’s ability to reawaken what Time has broken down, the self and memory, what appears grotesque, portraiture and the complications of humor when coupled with the taboo. The exhibition In The Mix, features artists Christy Powers, Amanda Walker, Margaret Ann Withers, R.J. Calabrese, and Pablo Power delivering their own, unique reactions.
Pablo Power creates textured and sculptural paintings, often on wood. His imagined landscapes and topographical views are on not only the work, but also in his explorations of color and line. Time plays a pivotal role not just because of the time spent with the work, but also the evidence of time on the work and its effect on the result. What is interesting here is that though we all battle with time, as well as the lack of it and its destructive quality, Power has taken what time has broken down and reincarnated it. His works on wood can be taken as ‘reborn’ into soft, gentle, and welcoming geometric abstracts. Through these layers, he draws the viewer in to explore both the surface and the idea of time, as seen in Reproach of Generation.
Christy Powers plays with memory in faceless paintings and portraits taken from vintage photographs, creating little scenarios that are familiar as well as distant. Powers manages this balance of opposites through a gentle and thoughtful brushstroke, allowing the viewer moments of memory both real and imagined. Sleeping Beauty, for example, makes room for one’s associations from the fairytale, as well as memories of watching another sleep; we imagine “what are they dreaming about?” This also begs further questions: what do any of us dream about—our mothers, our daughters? Have we created a world where dreams happen? Where they come true? And, is this possible today in 2023?
Melding notes of the Middle Ages and the Surreal, Amanda Walker’s carefully executed drawings and painting play with mysterious, otherworldly places of supposed familiarity, and in some ways reminiscent of Bosch. She leaves the viewer wondering: is the intent the same? Walker’s Grove couples a beautiful and soothing palette with mystical actors and activities, inviting or even tempting the viewer to join the cast of characters without ensuring they’re safe in a world teeming with superstition.
Margaret Ann Withers, both a sculptor and painter, creates mythical beings and landscapes often infused with humor and the need for ‘a little giggle now and then.’ It is interesting that although there is this sense of humor, there is also a hint of something uncomfortable belying them, which is clearly seen in Like Some Kind of Rubin Face They Both Stared at Each Other Mesmerized by Their Sameness. The length of Withers’ titles add the narrative to the works; these titles explain, on the surface, the action in the work, while leaving so many levels of interpretation to the viewer and shifting the focus to the clues subtly scattered across and throughout Withers canvases and sculptures.
R.J. Calabrese jubilantly plays with both the grotesque and the taboo in his paintings, arguing that these topics are not to be hidden behind closed doors, but rather explored and enjoyed. He asks: what really is taboo, or grotesque? Drawing inspiration from many a child’s obsession with Mad Libs, works such as Rise Up jokingly question whether one can move from one social standing to another? Meaning if one is dreaming of fame, glamour and fortune, but cannot escape their own ‘packing’, can they really transition to their goal? Won’t Ralph from The Honeymooners always be balding, pudgy, and inappropriate? The other ‘trick’ hidden in Calabrese’s works is while they do look beautiful and inviting, the viewer can still be surprised upon closer inspection, not so much by the work, but by their response.
In The Mix takes all these topics and blends them together to explore the different layers of the human condition, and though all the works were created before today, they highlight that it is the differences of subject, technique, and medium that in essence stand for a society. The obvious, blatant differences between us are what makes culture—a society of joined individuals—accepting these differences while co-existing as harmoniously as this exhibition. These works and these artists are all striving to dwell in notions of beauty, recognizing the individual with all their quirks, foibles, and dreams. As Keats noted “Truth is Beauty,” and through this acknowledgement, it becomes clear that what shares sameness, uniformity, and the addiction of silence and censorship is quite frankly, ugly, un-beautiful and therefore, just not truth.
Curation by Melanie Prapopoulos
