NYAB Event - "Who's Afraid of Ornament?" Exhibition

"Who's Afraid of Ornament?" Exhibition

NURTUREart

This event has ended.

Is it really a Jaguar if it doesn't have the metal cat leaping from the hood? Can a pine tree be a called a Christmas tree even with no decorations? Is ornament always an unnecessary extra, a superfluous embellishment, or is it in fact constitutive of much that we take for granted? And in today's artistic climate, what role can ornament play?

Responding to a contemporary artworld that she sees as overemphasizing the conceptual, Natasha Kurchanova presents the work of ten artists who bring the sensual to the forefront, prioritizing aesthetic experience over intellectual judgment. Arguing that the center of gravity in art is now primarily "discourse", in which artists are expected to contribute to an ongoing dialogue rather than provide sites of sensory experience, Kurchanova explores the role of what she calls the "ornamental" in contemporary practice. However, for the artists in this exhibition, ornament is not what you would expect. Instead of the extra (but unnecessary) embellishments added to a structure, Kurchanova sees these artists as using ornament as the necessary building blocks of the work itself. The result is a complex and visually rich celebration of the sensual power of art.