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SKINS

Heather Benjamin
Caroline Wells Chandler
Mark Ryan Chariker
Madeline Donahue
Jenna Gribbon
Kate Klingbeil
Katarina Janeckova
Haley Josephs
Irena Jurek
Doron Langberg
Jenny Morgan
Rebecca Morgan
Sophia Narrett
Emilia Olsen
Danielle Orchard
Leonard Reibstein
Erin Riley
Emma Stern
Margaux Valengin
Kyle Vu-Dunn
Lily Wong

September 7 – 15 and October 6 – 20

Although in recent history figurative art was, at times, deprecated by abstraction, the urge to replicate the human form always predictably reemerges. It’s an attraction that is traditionally and cross-culturally prevalent. We have been our own artistic subjects from the dawn of time.

But what draws us to replicating our likeness? Does it help us understand the universal human condition? There is versatility in the subject. On one hand, man is a god-like creator, and, on the other, he is mortal and the body fragile. There is much that can be embodied in the human figure. There are many messages that can be conveyed, but arguably its strength, as a subject, comes from its ability to link us together.

The nude is our most essentialized form. It is us at our most vulnerable, without emblematic costume signifying class, culture, or personality.  In our nakedness, we lose signifiers of our hierarchies and become our animal selves - natural, innocent, without pretense. As humans we do everything we can to separate ourselves from the hive. We denounce the instincts that govern the ant colony, the herd of buffalo, the flock of geese. We build testament to our individual intellect and reasoning, but this denial of our true animal-pack nature leads to chaos in the flock, opening the herd to discord, and the colony to turmoil.

Skins is a celebration of the body, in its pure, natural vulnerability and beauty. It is also a reminder that we are always both separate and whole.