Fresh! - Invitational Provides a Blank Canvas for Artists to Make their Mark

In the continuation of a tradition, Projects Gallery announces Fresh! 2009, the annual autumnal show of emerging artists and work that is new to the city. Selected by Director Helen Meyrick, these artists diversely employ sculpture, site-specific installation, video, photography, painting and drawing. 

This year’s work provides wildly disparate visuals as these artists grapple with the ephemera and trappings of contemporary culture. Of special concern to many of the artists is the vortex of consumerist culture and the effort to combat the notion that objects equal worth. There is a palpable frustration in many of the works of Fresh! 2009. One arrives at a sense of the artist’s struggle with emotions and structural institutions too strong and terrible to tear down directly. There is an eye to nature – perhaps of special resonance to this generation, and entanglements organic, technological, and emotional permeate the works.

Less figurative than previous shows, even the representational art seeks to subvert what the viewer assumes they are being shown. There is an undermining and overlapping of preconceived structures, both literal buildings and social relationships. Clutter is evident in many of the works, either as overwhelming cacophony or as order within the chaos. Ambivalently about perceived dissonance and suffocating in hyper-connectivity, the artists speak of being in limbo, grasping for context in which to place themselves, frequently manufacturing their own. Fresh! manages to side-step the slippery slopes of solipsism, common in many emerging artist shows. The works are hefty with impact both sensual and violent as persons and concepts collide.

Rather than a ‘greatest hits’ regurgitation of the student shows, Fresh! attempts to bring together disparate artists united not by imposed thematic or material concerns but as a chorus of individual voices. Participants include: Timothea Canny, Luca Chiriani, Cara Croke, Rose Crook, Aimee Denault, Dane Drago, Caitlin Fennelly, Ashley Flynn, Maya Hope Goldweber, Lisa Haskell, Megan Jensen, Doron Langberg, Del Lovett, Chelsea Maymon, Gwen Murphy, Bryan Powers, Rita Reisser, Jaime Roth, Catherine (Kate) Samworth, Robert Scobey, Anna Shukeylo, Jacob Smiley, David Solan, Trang Tong, Anthony Vega, and Nicole White.

Fresh! 2009 will be on display September 4 – October 31, 2009. There will also be an artist reception First Friday September 4th from 6 - 9 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public.