Friday, May 14, 2010

Tonight in Cleveland (5/13): Douglas Max Utter/Kasumi exhibit opening at Asterisk Gallery


Tonight is the opening reception for the newest exhibit at Cleveland's fine Asterisk Gallery. Dubbed "Sleepwalkers," the exhibit features the work of a couple tremendous artists, painter Douglas Max Utter and video artist Kasumi. This is not one to be missed, as evidenced by the artists' statement below.

Daily life is a matter of complex equilibrium, achieved in a micro- and macro-context of mind boggling velocities -- like passengers napping on a commuter flight. One of the secrets of our poise is the interior positioning system that cognitive scientists term proprioception -- the way we perceive where different parts of our bodies are in space in relation to each other based on internal clues. This is something that art in general seems to comment on and explore. A painting or a video (or dance or concerto) inevitably distorts the transmission of information about both visual and internal realities, a distortion that has emotional, intellectual, even neuro-muscular implications and impact. The works in this show play with a range of effects caused by the interplay of color and line, recognition and transformation based on images of the human figure. These are not intended to be emotionally expressive studies (though they can be); they meditate on the use of formal qualities and materials to evoke the movement of energy through the half-awake array of identities and postures that each of us lumps together under the heading: “myself.”

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