Tuesday, June 1, 2021

INTENSITY Exhibition June 1 - August 31, 2021


Rhombus Space is pleased to present INTENSITY featuring work by artists, Monica Carrier, Sherri Cobb, Dave Dexter, Carlos Dye, Bruce Eichelberger, Don Fritz, Adriana Furlong, and Sam Ticknor. Dealing with the aftermath of the surge of hardships experienced during the pandemic and as the aftershocks, realizations, and ferocity of a shifted realities start to set in, INTENSITY, aims to offer us a way to express all this trauma, displacement, and emotional reckoning. The artists in this exhibition walk the line of acceptable/taboo, hidden/visible, trauma/healing, to find a voice for uncomfortable perspectives that challenge the masking veil of the status quo. 


Looking at the artists' work through the lens of trauma/healing and emotion/resilience, INTENSITY is the second in an installment of Rhombus Space curated online exhibitions that connect artists working in different regions of the country. The curatorial concept is to invite 4 artists who in turn invite 4 more artists, for a showing of 8 artists, to come together in a cultural dialogue about art in our time. Artists are selected for how their work reflects the overall theme of the show.


While the CDC recently announced that vaccinated people can now generally de-mask, it is hard to fathom that areas of Canada are still in total lockdown and countries like India are in an extreme crisis. The work in the show deals with a kind of eruption and expression of intense physical, visual detail, conceptual depth, existential crisis, and emotional resonance. 


Sherri Cobb uses her body to create bold and dynamic action paintings that emphasize strength, speed, and the impermanence of life. Monica Carrier is unabashed in her depiction of bodily vulnerability through the figures in her work by letting ink pool and sinuously guide her image-making towards unexpected and uncontrolled precisions registering the subject’s subjective presence in the world. Scratching away at the surface of consensus-based accounts of history to challenge the ideal of the American Dream, Adriana Furlong uses an array of materials and techniques driven by a conceptual exploration of archives, labor, and migration exploring themes of the Dust Bowl, immigration, and Manifest Destiny. Bruce Eichelberger is unafraid of touching the third rail of controversy by questioning religious authority and patriarchy, through a fixated exercising of personal and social trauma through his detailed and meticulous drawings, paintings, and sculptures.


Living between Mexico and California, Don Fritz plays with high-brow/low-brow imagery mining the depth of cultural views through icons and characters floating through his works to challenge North American (including Mexican) childhood, gender-role, and political expectations piercing society’s skewed veneer of what is considered normal. Dedicated ceramicist, Carlos Dye, works with symbols and humor influenced by the televised violence, drama, and humor of the 1960s and 1970s, juxtaposing tangent story fragments and creating new narratives of the American Experience in his sculptures and ceramic paintings. Painting with trompe l'oeil techniques Dave Dexter goes deeper than the surface of things, examining stereotypes, poking at taboos, and seemingly innocent childhood memorabilia. Diving deep into the heat of self-awareness Sam Ticknor employs humor in her work dealing with the intense isolation brought on by conditions of the recent pandemic by presenting focused familiar domestic scenes as a metaphor for the emotional and psychological space of the viewer. 


These works are presented in the context of art historical precedents which abound with examples of the quality of intensity in art. Most notably, such works include the art of Hieronymous Bosch who painted apocalyptic scenes showing the existential struggle and the sins of ego and vanity. Also Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s famous painting The Blind Leading the Blind, made as a biblical parable and made in response to mass arrests and religious suppression. Horror and death are evident in Francisco Goya’s Black Painting series (ex. Saturn Devouring His Son). Trauma and edges of social acceptance were present in Henry Darger’s work that reflected his own adoption experience and childhood institutionalization. Carroll Dunham’s thick-line cartoon indebted work pushes boundaries of social norms and sexuality. Finally, there is Jackson Pollock’s early work that focused on grand mythological themes and evolved into a powerful corporeal testament of being.

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INTENSITY will be featured June 1 - August 31, 2021. 

http://www.rhombusspace.com/current-intensity.html


For more information please visit: www.rhombusspace.com and @rhombusspace

For inquiries please email: rhombusspace@gmail.com


Monica Carrier @monicacandoit www.monicacarrier.com

Sherri Cobb @sherricobb www.sherricobb.com

Dave Dexter @davedexterartist bit.ly/2RYYfbi

Carlos Dye @carlosdyeceramics www.carlosdye.com

Bruce Eichelberger @bruceeichelbergerart www.bruceeichelbergerart.com

Don Fritz @donfritz www.donfritz.com & www.donfritz.org

Adriana Furlong @adriana.furlong www.adrianafurlong.com

Sam Ticknor @sammytthebrave www.samt.work