The artworks
in this show represent a wide Range of mediums, concerns, and sensibilities,
clay, stone, photography, and oil, watercolor, textile, and wood; representation,
and abstraction and worlds in-between, all have been utilized by these
artists to unique and specific ends. This exhibition's variety of approach
to both subject and material is indicative of the freedom currently
available to artists, which allows for them to explore wherever and
however their art leads them.
The title
Art in a Changing World suggests that we live in rapidly and
dramatically changing times, increasingly, the continued shifts in technology,
globalization, and world events help to keep us in a state of flux.
An artist is a reflection of his time, just as his work is a reflection
and extension of the culture in which he lives; but, though an artist
may be at odds with the world around him, politically or artistically,
his work speaks first and formeost to his own experience through the
language of art.
Art achieves
more than merely to express the artists personality and respective period.
An artwork has the power to engage with individuals who are unfamiliar
with the time, place, and often, the purpose, for which it was made.
Art survives the particulars that produced it. Artworks, always in dialogue
with other artworks, can seem to be more closely related to the art
of the past, or the audience of the future, than to the art and audience
of its present.
I selected
works for this show that express those values; works that have the power
to move us through, and beyond, the concerns of our day; works that,
through their strength in quality, regardless of subject or approach,
can ground us in the depth of our experience. Through the experience
of the works in this show, hopefully, we can better understand ourselves,
and connect with the world and the people around us.
Lance
Esplund
October 2002
