March 1 - April 14, 2024
FROM LIGHT, WE EMERGE is a group show looking at the crucial effect of light on our being. Light's behavior, such as passing through, reflecting, refracting, moving, or distorting, affects us through its reliability, its radiance, and steadfast powers to illuminate.
Cheryl Calleri, Carol Dalton, Irene Imfeld, and Hyeyoung Kim
Water Music IV (2022) by Carol Dalton, 36 x 42 in., Mixed media on panel < click to collect this artwork >
Water Music I (2021) by Carol Dalton, 24 x 30 in., Mixed media on panel < click to collect this artwork >
Watermarks (2023) by Carol Dalton, 40 x 50 in., Mixed media on panel < click to collect this artwork >
Clouds (0110) (2020) by Irene Imfeld, 24 x 36 in., Archival digital print on 100% cotton paper < click to collect this artwork >
Clouds (0007) (2020) by Irene Imfeld, 24 x 36 in., Dye sublimation print on aluminum < click to collect this artwork >
Clouds (3112R) (2020) by Irene Imfeld, 24 x 36 in., Dye sublimation print on aluminum < click to collect this artwork >
Clouds (0108) (2020) by Irene Imfeld, 24 x 36 in., Archival digital print on 100% cotton paper < click to collect this artwork >
Body, Sewn (2017) by Hyeyoung Kim, 85.25 x 43.5 x 3.5 in. Archival pigment on silk, thread, wood, wire < click to collect this artwork >
Self, Reflecting, (2020) by Hyeyoung Kim, 44 x 36 in. Archival pigment on silk, hand-made double wooden box frame, quadriptych < click to collect this artwork >
Body, Sewn-Encaustic (2020) by Hyeyoung Kim, 65 x 25 x 2 in. Archival pigment on silk, encaustic, on a handmade-wooden frame < click to collect this artwork >
Alpha (2017) by Cheryl Calleri, 12 x 12 in. Archival pigment print < click to collect this artwork >
Wing (2017) by Cheryl Calleri, 13 x 13 in. Archival pigment print < click to collect this artwork >
Torus (2017) by Cheryl Calleri, 13 x 13 in. Archival pigment print < click to collect this artwork >
Artifact E 1800 (2015) by Cheryl Calleri, 10 x 6.25 in. Archival pigment print < click to collect this artwork >
Patience (2020) by Cheryl Calleri, 15 x 11 x 14 in. silvered concave glass disk, LED lights < click to collect this artwork >
Light Offering (2019) by Cheryl Calleri, 40 x 32 x 32 in. silvered concave glass disk, led lights, water < click to collect this artwork >
Circle Folding (2019) by Cheryl Calleri, 12 x 12 x 8 in. silvered concave glass disk, LED lights, water < click to collect this artwork >
Passage Of Light (2022) by Cheryl Calleri, 8 x 60 x 5 in. silvered concave glass disk, LED lights < click to collect this artwork >
Chrysalis (2022) by Cheryl Calleri, 98 x 45 x 45 in. glass, water, wood, LED light < click to collect this artwork >
Watch Chrysalis Video
Ladder (2020) by Cheryl Calleri, 8 x 8 in., Pinhole photography, archival pigment print < click to collect this artwork >
Curator’s Statement
Today, our social reckonings reveal a history of intersections, past and present - we find ourselves in dire need to share complete stories to bring enlightened awareness. The vehicle of light is a much needed tool during such times. Here is an exhibition of hope and the reliability of light.
Is our understanding of light programmed in our DNA? It is without a doubt our understanding of its presence that is the constant, by the cyclical behavior of the sun always rising, always setting. Sunlight, known by humans from the beginning of our existence, demonstrates emergence from darkness. ‘In the midst of darkness, light persists.’ Our dependance on light to heal, to illuminate, and to sustain us, is as radiant medicine. Supporting all aspects of life such as food production, thriving water ways, power, warmth, and comfort, it also signals itself in its influence on daily routine, something we may likely take for granted but is integral to our existence. There is tremendous power and reliance on this element. When feeling low, the light can heal and uplift our spirits. The light of the sun grows our food. Scholars bring light to new facts. We shut the lights off at the end of a long day, mimicking the earth's rotation, and our ongoing relationship to light. "From Light, We Emerge" celebrates and investigates the luminous works of Cheryl Calleri, Carol Dalton, Irene Imfeld, and Heyoung Kim.
Artist Cheryl Calleri documents voyages of her explorations, capturing and revealing abstractions of the wonders of light suspended in air not often seen. She approaches light as primary medium and offers viewers a chance to be affected by its mysterious manners - creating opportunities to be transformed by the reflection of light in spaces both defined and experimental. Hyeyong Kim assembles self-portraits emerging from a deep, rich, dark or light space, revealing more than just the figure but evoking mood and spirit of the entire assemblage. Irene Imfeld's photographs lift our perspectives towards the skies for peeks of sudden appearances of light illumination in cloud forms. Imfeld notes regarding our encounters with clouds, that "as always, pausing to look with care can open to the unexpected.” Paintings by Carol Dalton evoke feelings akin to observing nature, like light's shifting patterns and movements created by wind on a water's surface. "Nature has been my savior during a most challenging year in memory, both personally and globally. I am grateful to be replenished by my surroundings...my hope is that viewers will find in my work the evidence of those restorative powers..."
This group show centers light as a subject and our profound relationship with it. Individually and collectively this presentation reminds us of the exercise to search for light as we make sense of a chaotic world, grappling with life's complexities and seeking spiritual truth through luminosity.
‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.’ — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Morning Poem by Mary Oliver
Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange
sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again
and fasten themselves to the high branches ---
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands
of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails
for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it
the thorn
that is heavier than lead ---
if it's all you can do
to keep on trudging ---
there is still
somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted ---
each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,
whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.
[In every known nook of our nation, in every corner called our country,
our people, diverse and beautiful, will emerge, battered and beautiful.
When day comes, we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.] — Amanda Gorman, Excerpt from 'The Hill We Climb'