Participating Artists:
Al Hansen, Alex Katz, Andy Warhol, Anne Katrine Senstad, Dietmar Busse, Duhirwe Rushemeza, Dustin Spence, Jerry Torre, Justin Olerud, Kenny Schachter, Kiki Smith, Louise Bourgeois, Marcel Duchamp, Mary-Ann Monforton, Maynard Monrow, Mike Osterhout, Nan Goldin, Nancy Sadler, Peter Coffin, Raynes Birkbeck, Roland Gebhardt, and Sarah Charlesworth
New York, NY — Air Mattress Gallery presents
Born Again Virgin -- A Midsummer Night's Dream
I was once asked about the creative process -- specifically how it feels to go from concept to execution. I work in many formats, so I answered that each time I begin a new piece I feel like a Born Again Virgin. Not without knowledge, but fresh to the asks/demands of the idea, my lover of the moment. It's been well over 100 days of lockdown and social distancing. Some are self-isolating alone, some with spouses/partners, roommates, families ,or friends. We wondered how artists were expressing themselves in this paradigm shifting time. We asked about work made during this time of quarantine, and also looked for works made previously that seem pertinent to the present. How are artists re-assessing our world, how are they defining this experience. There are myriad approaches to be found; from the altering of stone, to transformative acts of intervention that re-define an object, to the revelations exposed in painting, and all manner of creating.
Air Mattress Gallery was created to be a shared salon experience-- not the usual gallery format, but one where we got together to show our art and party like the days when galleries weren't so corporate. We had spatial constraints but were free in our exchange of energy and ideas. Now we have no physical restrictions on what we can show, but of necessity we are doing it virtually. Like Born Again Virgins, and with our virtuosity intact.
I don't pretend to know exactly where we are or where we are going in this mystifying time, but I do know the future will be born of what we make. Our present will be as we define it. Would you like to be part of it? Born Again Virgin: A Midsummer Night's Dream at Air Mattress Gallery will present a variety of responses to our current situation.
-Mark DeMuro
July 2020