ADAPT (Iteration 2)

Robischon Gallery, July-September 2020

Robischon Gallery presents “ADAPT (Iteration 2),” a group exhibition of new and recent work by artists Terry Maker, Omar Chacon, Ted Larsen, Wendi Harford, and Betty Merken who are known to approach abstraction in ways both improvisational and systematic. As society’s vanguards, artists routinely embrace the unexpected and transform it, while seeking and accepting challenges in visionary ways. Transmutation is a matter of course within an artist’s studio practice, as flux is the malleable visual language furthered by each artist’s chosen media. Through sculptural and painted means, this second installation of the gallery’s three-part evolving summer exhibition provides a look at the artists’ individual ongoing investigations in abstraction which inherently reflect the act of problem-solving. During this period of rapid change around the globe, the revelations of artists may provide a respite as well as a glimpse into the restorative nature of intuitive engagement. In consideration of the phrase Art-as-metaphor, the work of the five artists in “ADAPT (Iteration 2)” offers the viewer a new way to see. Creating in symbolic parallel, each artist within their vibrant mark-making, conveys a kind of personal resolve to adapt – one that recalls the very human aspiration to move toward a shift in perspective during tumultuous times.

“I am keenly aware and want to be responsive to the latest developments of our present-day trials and crises.  My work sometimes has acerbic humor that addresses our particular and contemporary ultimatum – to adapt or succumb to futility and despair. The need for creating a defiant response to despondency is on our plate. We will adapt by being the creative humans that we’re called to be right now – to rise to the call to redesign, transform and adapt.”

– Terry Maker