Anthony White

LET THERE BE LIGHT: A FIGURATIVE EXPLORATION OF BEAUTY, GROTESQUERIE, AND ABSURDITY WITHIN THE HUMAN FORM

Let There Be Light is an exhibition of figurative works that counter and complement the historical tradition of figurative painting. The canon of visual art has captured a shifting scale between notions of the ‘sacred’ and the ‘secular’. This survey is not a direct reinterpretation of those references, but rather an acknowledgment of their enduring influence.

Drawing from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences, the work in the exhibition reveals an internal tug-of-war between identity and anonymity; between singularity and multiplicity, where clarity dissolves into ambiguity. Discrete forms of exploration, subjectivity, and becoming are presented through thrill, secrecy, and sensation: rituals of pleasure, tension, and transformation unfold just beyond view.

Let There Be Light acknowledges our bodies and behaviors in exaggerated ways that make them beautiful for the same reasons they might otherwise be deemed revolting. Alternative binaries emerge, ones that have the power to unsettle narrow ways of seeing. And by severing the tension that exists between celebration and censorship, the exhibition positions light and dark not as opposites, but rather as partners in dance; intertwined, in tension, and always in motion.

Exhibiting artists include:
Angela Santana
Bryan Rogers
Callan Ponsford
Canyon Castador
Devan Shimoyama
Elizabeth Malaska
Emma Stern
Feather Chiaverini
Gary Hill
Hank Reavis
Jade Thacker
Jen Mann
Kyle Coniglio
Matthew Stone
Nadia Waheed 
Rosalie Gamache
Samantha Yun Wall
Sarah Jérôme
Skye Volmar
Tip Toland