COLLECTIVE EXHIBITION AT DIANA LOWENSTEIN GALLERY
Close encounters of the new kind is Diana Lownstein Gallery’s collective exhibition presenting artists Lidzie Alvisa, Lole Asikian, Felice Grodin, Ivelisse Jimenez, Clemencia Labin, Alejandra Padilla, Silvia Rivas, Graciela Sacco, Caroline Lathan-Stiefel and Alex Trimino.
Curatorial text
In writer Elvia Wilk’s essay “The World Made Fresh: Mystical Encounter and the New Weird Divine” she discusses the protagonist in novelist Jeff VanderMeer’s book Annihilation (2014):
“Annihilation’s narrator is the unnamed biologist. An expert in ‘transitional ecosystems’ – regions where one biosphere meets another – she has trained with her colleagues for months to prepare for their journey into Area X.”
Wilk’s full text traces the relationship between historical imprints of female mysticism and finds that there is “a lineage of female knowledge outside of dominant epistemologies of both religion and science.” Exposing the often designated “other” or “alien” ascribed to such encounters and transcriptions of them, she argues for a new form agency in such knowledge. Thus, it is to her no coincidence that all (human) characters in Annihilation are women that share an empathic bond with Area X. Area X, an alien landscape that is officially quarantined in the story, represents a current realm of unknown unknowns in which the characters, and by extension – the potentials – of current female mystical modalities reside, according to Wilk.
Wilk summarizes that “The body is a transitional ecosystem; it can’t survive in a vacuum,” and suggests that a “new weird divine” may be emergent that pulls from the origins of traditional female mysticism into something that could serve as “a foundation for non-anthropocentric knowledge.” An example of this might be the recent artistic collaborative/movement Laboria Cuboniks, a.k.a., Xenofeminism. Another example is the current exhibition at The Brick in Los Angeles, Life on Earth: Art and Ecofeminism.
The group exhibition, consisting of ten gallery artists, attempts to address these thought-provoking concepts. From emergent and spliced figural studies, to abstract landscapes within fields of un/becoming, the assembled works of Close Encounters of the New Kind continues this trajectory.
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LIDZIE ALVISA, Imán, 2000 photograph, cardboard, pins and acrylic - Ed: 3/5, 11 x 13 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. (28 x 35 x 4 cm) AL-C-0036
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LOLE ASIKIAN, Masis, 2020 photo Canson Platine Fiber Rag, 39 1/4 x 59 in. (100 x 150 cm) Ed:5 AL-C-0002
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FELICE GRODIN, scenic route, 2023 freehand ink on mylar, 18 x 24 in. (45.7 x 61 cm) FG--C0060
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IVELISSE JIMENEZ, Archive Of Errors #11, 2021 painting over vinyl and canvas - mixed media, 20 x 20 in. (50.8 x 50.8 cm) IJ-0040
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CLEMENCIA LABIN, Cosido 18, 2014 Fabric collages filled with Polyester cotton and painted with acrylics. Sewn on textile or paper, 22 x 16 1/2 in. (56 x 42 cm) CL-C-0118
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ALEJANDRA PADILLA, Cuatro Modulos - Serie Papiros, 2001/10 collage on canvas, 57 1/8 x 9 7/8 in. (145 x 25 cm) PA-C-0040
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SILVIA RIVAS, Tiny Events- Uno, 2007 acrylic,graphite,impression on magnani paper, 18 1/8 x 18 1/8 in. (46 x 46 cm) RS-C-0053
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GRACIELA SACCO, El otro lado de la serie Tension Admisible, 2013 Heliography on Venetian blinds, 39 3/8 x 27 1/2 x 5 7/8 in. (100 x 70 x 15 cm) SG-C-0090
Participating artists: Lidzie Alvisa, Lole Asikian, Felice Grodin, Ivelisse Jimenez, Clemencia Labin, Alejandra Padilla, Silvia Rivas, Graciela Sacco, Caroline Lathan-Stiefel and Alex Trimino.
Close encounters of the new kind. Group exhibition.
Until January 31, 2024.
Diana Lowenstein Gallery. 326 NE 61st Street Miami, United States.
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