NYAB Event - “ARC across the VORTEX — Alchemy, Art and Science” Exhibition

“ARC across the VORTEX — Alchemy, Art and Science” Exhibition

Art 101

This event has ended.

Metaphor and inchoate matter merge in the multivalent vortex. These concentrated energies of spinning motion have always been felt to be gateways to other realms. Both scientists and contemporary alchemists engage the fundamental dynamic of the vortex. Through their long careers artists Ellen Driscoll, Eve Andrée Laramée and Mary Ziegler have each identified ways of life that are irresistibly engulfing, often dangerous, even lethal vortices. With ardent curiosity, scientific inquiry, and a sense of wonder each has forged a dramatic arc across these maelstroms. A luminous arc of consciousness and imagination.

Driscoll, Laramée and Ziegler have all shown their works extensively and have been commissioned for public arts projects that declare their commitment to art beyond the scope of the marketplace. These voices disrupt authority embracing the paradoxical and poetic. Common to their vigorous practices are science fiction, mapping that is fluid and a disparate array of materials. Furthermore, each of these artists is fortified with a generous sense of levity and a sense of the absurd that betrays their deep humanity.

Though with some common springboards and provocations, these artists chart quite distinct aesthetic territories. Laramée and Driscoll are especially cognizant of the unbridled destruction of our environment. While Ziegler’s kinetic sculpture utilizes chaos and random action to bring to life the tenuous nature of balance and control.

In her recent interview with Eve Andrée Laramée, Ann McCoy thoughtfully observes, “I know of no other artist who explores the relationship of science to psyche”. I would add to this conversation that all three of these artists invoke this rich dynamic along with implications of social histories. In Arc across the Vortex the sculptures and works on paper of Driscoll, Laramée and Ziegler allow us to glimpse the ‘arc’ and feel the expansiveness of their visions, both materially and conceptually.