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Visceral, an outcome of raw emotion, harsh imagery, an uncomfortable response… the artists in this exhibition don’t necessarily set out for this type of work yet somewhere in the creative process these qualities takeover.

Chuck Tisa’s imagery is not nice to look at. He paints what he describes as an “autobiographical visualization of his place in the world at large.” Beautifully painted these figures describe the human condition as a difficult, lonely, and cruel place to be.

Like a punk rock song Maya Eliya’s cutouts scream their pain. She cuts out photos of pretty women from paper and uses them as her muse and perhaps her voice. Primitive and raw the text pasted below the imagery describes women in states of self hatred, depression, and self doubt. By cutting and pasting each letter from magazines she renders the writer anonymous further strengthening the gulf between what the photo is saying and what a woman (like those in the photos) might actually feel.

Whether it is conceptual or visual the outcome of the piece produces a palpable feeling that gets your gut in one way or another, it wrenches you, release you, draws you out in an unkind way.

Participating Artists

• Chuck Tisa
• Janice Sloane
• Kymia Nawabi
• Rachel Phillips
• Maya Eliya