UNCANNY CONGRUENCIES

Uncanny Congruencies

September 10–December 15, 2013
Palmer Museum of Art

A group exhibition including Christa Assad, Jason Walker, and other artists.

The power of art is often found in those uncanny spaces between formal abstraction and the narratives of representation. Inseparable parts of a more complex whole, the form of abstraction and the content of representation are the collaborative conditions that have created the most compelling works of art since antiquity. Uncanny Congruencies investigates these elliptical crisscrossings, and offers a nuanced dialogue with its audiences through the seemingly dissimilar work of eighteen alumni of the Penn State School of Visual Arts—all of which intersects and dialogues with one another in surprising ways.

The tyranny of certainty and the increasing fear of ambiguity in our age of instant messaging and immediate gratification are challenged by the exhibition’s curatorial invitation to see beyond the obvious. Viewers are encouraged to engage with works of art in relation to one another. Where do these disparate sensibilities intersect and connect? More important, how do these artists distinguish themselves in our highly complex and competitive world?

Uncanny Congruencies is being presented as part of the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State and was guest co-curated by Micaela Amateau Amato, professor emerita of art and women’s studies. The exhibition and related events are being co-sponsored by the Palmer Museum of Art and the School of Visual Arts at Penn State.

Artists in the exhibition include Brian Alfred, Cara Judea Alhadeff, Christa Assad, Kenn Bass, Judith Bernstein, Gerald Davis, Robert Ecker, Suzan Frecon, Krista Hoefle, Marina Kuchinski, Helen Harrington Marden, Beverly McIver, Tim Roda, Malcolm Mobutu Smith, Allen C. Topolski, Jason Walker, Henry Wessel, and David W. Young.
Christa Assad and Jason Walker are represented by Ferrin Contemporary.