"Holding Hands" Curated by Robert Otto Epstein

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HOLDING HANDS

Kari CHOLNOKY
Clare GRILL
EJ HAUSER
Mike OLIN
Ryan WALLACE

Curated by Robert Otto Epstein

The five artists paint in ways that bond—in one hand they hold the past, boundless and yet reclaimable like elements in the periodic table—and in the other hand they hold the future, as embracing mirages of what is yet to come. The works in this show all rethink history through subtle yet powerful gestures connoting a unity of personal and universal memory. We are summoned to recall how experience relates to a providence of language that defies any one moment in time. These artists build up life in their work from their own experiences but also know how to stretch experience onto other knowledgeable bodies—like touchable shapes in the universe. Their work shows us a way of seeing and knowing where neither one outpaces the other, allowing us to look through it in a language-opening manner that reads and feels true. We stare at these works and for those moments we are fortunate to become like clay.