Plus Gallery artist Tsehai Johnson is now featured in the exhibition "Who's afraid of ornament?" at the NURTUREart Gallery and Emerging Curators' Resource Center from April 23rd - May 29th, 2010, as curated by Natasha Kurchanova. The exhibition includes works by ArdAn Özmenoglu, Carla Cubit, Corinne Whitaker, Evan Reehl Ryer, Katherine Daniels, Lili White, Linda Ganjian, Meridith Pingree, Shelley Himmelstein, alongside Tsehai.
Is it really a Jaguar if it doesn't have the metal cat leaping from the hood? Can a pine tree be called a Christmas tree even with no decorations? Is ornament always an unnecessary extra, a superfluous embellishment, or is it in fact constitutive of much that we take for granted? And in today's artistic climate, what role can ornament play?
Responding to a contemporary artworld that she sees as overemphasizing the conceptual, Natasha Kurchanova presents the work of ten artists who bring the sensual to the forefront, prioritizing aesthetic experience over intellectual judgment. Arguing that the center of gravity in art is now primarily "discourse", in which artists are expected to contribute to an ongoing dialogue rather than provide sites of sensory experience, Kurchanova explores the role of what she calls the "ornamental" in contemporary practice. However, for the artists in this exhibition, ornament is not what you would expect. Instead of the extra (but unnecessary) embellishments added to a structure, Kurchanova sees these artists as using ornament as the necessary building blocks of the work itself. The result is a complex and visually rich celebration of the sensual power of art.
Who's Afraid of Ornament is a NURTUREart Emerging Curators' Program Collaboration. Learn more about all of NURTUREart's programs and opportunities for emerging artists and curators at http://www.nurtureart.org.
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