https://riverviews.net/presently
“First Look” Preview: Wednesday, February 4th, 5-7 p.m.
“First Friday” Exhibition Opening: Friday, February 6th, 5-8 p.m.
Project Statement
What the artists of Presently share in common is a process focused in extemporaneous creation built up over an extended period of time rather than executing a preconceived plan. They all create from a place deep within which is always new.
The state of not knowing becomes one of the art materials that motivates actions. One thing flows from another, one layer or cut is an end while simultaneously providing the start of a new possibility. Intuitively, a complex image constellates where all movement happens all at once. Presently it is happening. Illusion of space and time within the work speaks about the illusory and flexible nature of time and space in life. All work is so-called time consuming. Yet, time can’t be consumed. Only as thought, it can.
While much contemporary artwork is in conversation with or references the work of other artists, styles, or genres, these artists prioritize the process itself which is the meaning of the work in terms of its implications and its effects on a viewer’s consciousness. The merging of the limited with the unlimited: limited matter with the unlimited mind.
Perhaps what visually unites this group of artists most is working in fields, rather than depicting objects. When not working in a self-centered way, it’s possible to open the door to something greater and unlimited. The space of the mind is boundless.
The work of the Presently artists invite the viewer to take the journey and perceive “what is” presented through a visual manifestation. It takes creating without conditioning, and also viewing without conditioning to arrive at a more undivided, holistic position. When seeing/feeling the interrelatedness of all, the undividedness in “what is”, real perception may emerge. As Krishnamurti says, “There can be perception only when it is not changed by thought. When there is no interference of the movement of thought, there is perception.”
The Presently artists, Chris Arabadijs, Nelleke Beltjens, Reed Danziger, Thomas Kemper, and Sarah Walker exhibit these contemplations through diverse and complex working practices. Time, space, and consciousness, whereby time and space (space as we know it) are of the activity of the brain and consciousness is the foundation of all that exists.