New exhibit showcases young emerging artists
Much like poetry, art is a way for people to powerfully express themselves, where one brush stroke can say countless words. Art comes in many forms, for poetry is art, and art is poetry. Art can also be music, painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, etching, calligraphy, creating anything, cooking, sculpting, computer or video art, architecture, and list goes on. The poetic weight that pours from all forms of it is measurable.
Artwork can often be viewed as an extension of one’s emotions or feelings. It is a beautiful thing for people to create physical relics of their inner smiles, cries, and everything in between. For an artist to take their heart and create with such raw power that a piece of them goes into it; nostalgia will forever bind those associated feelings to whoever knows of the weight, especially the artist.
Demonstrating the sublime rawness of poetic artwork is soon to be presented by, and displayed at the Hunter Museum of Arts through the 15th Annual Juried (Re)Invention Exhibition by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which will be on view at the museum between March 17th and May 21st.
The program is part of the VSA Emerging Young Artists Program, a Jean Kennedy Smith Arts and Disability Program. The exhibition is a collection of art from fifteen emerging young artists from across the United States who are living with disabilities. The artists involved range between the ages of 16 and 25 years old.
The national art competition and exhibition gives artists with disabilities a platform and possibility to display their artwork in venues throughout the country. A lengthy collaboration with the Volkswagen Group of America has helped the program to be an ongoing success.
According to the program “Rather than allowing their disabilities to label them, the artists in this exhibit produce work that embodies the theme of re-invention, re-definition, and re-making. Each artist uses art to consider such identity based topics as fragility, intimacy, isolation, race, gender, and the body.”
Essentially these young artists are pouring their heart and soul into their work in order for people to expand understanding of disabilities, and to enrich a sense of encompassment and commonage. “The artists in this exhibition explore what it means to have a disability and yet resist being defined solely by it. Through their art making, they question common societal perceptions and expectations, as well as discover a profound sense of self”.
This Thursday at 6 p.m., a day before the viewing of the exhibit commences, the Hunter Museum will feature a talk by the 2016 Lawrence College graduate, and California based visiting artist Kate Pincus-Whitney, whose art will be displayed in the (Re)Invention exhibit. Pincus-Whitney has experienced the realm of dyslexia and stereo blindness.
Into her art, she implemented pieces of her disability by including female forms, table scenes, food, patterns, color, as well as abstract and misspelled words.
“She aims to synthesize social and political themes of identity with visual memory and personal histories. She sees herself as an artist anthropologist”. She will have some incredible insight and the artistic minded community of Chattanooga should certainly bind together to listen to her words.
For these artists to be able to express this poetic component of themselves on a national level allows them to genuinely make an impact towards their cause.
These young artists have an outlet that allows them to create the weight of verisimilitude, a force so heavy that it will actualize their purpose; the (Re)Invention exhibit enables them to expose a light to people that might would not otherwise have the opportunity to come face to face with such a dazzling force.
One example of the potential power of this exhibit and the work of these rising young artists, Frida Kahlo is a deceased and world famous disabled artist that suffered from disabilities for much of her life. As a result of her disabilities she would turn to art as an outlet for her emotional and physical distress.
Some of her most famous pieces depicted her injuries and life experiences. She is remembered by her self-portraits, ability to artistically portray her pain and passion, and usage of bold and vibrant colors. Her paintings are valuable pieces of history and artwork.
These young men and women from around America can carry on Kahlo’s flame by displaying and continuing to make artwork that comes from their feelings, emotions, and guts. Perhaps their artwork will also withstand the test of time.
When people poetically create art with thunder and the desire to open eyes to make a difference, is when truly passionate artwork is created and where pieces of history are created.
This will be a glorious exhibit to experience, Chattanooga.