December 18, 2024 – January 21, 2025

Artists:
Emily Chudnovsky
Sydney Lad
Francis Pitsadiotis
Deepikah RB
Danielle Vincent
Chaoran Zhou

Curated by Gizem Candan

There are many layers and traces on our surroundings both subtle and visible, including human and non-human history hidden in corners, shadows, holes, waste, objects, landscape and more. Whether we are conscious of them or not, these layers of life leak both joy and tension into our everyday moments. Anxious yet familiar world is a group exhibition curated by Gizem Candan featuring a diverse selection of artworks by Emily Chudnovsky, Sydney Lad, Francis Pitsadiotis, Deepikah RB, Danielle Vincent, and Chaoran Zhou, whose practices explore a range of concepts and materials, such as body, ruins, animate and inanimate objects, climate change, memory, emotions, hope and more. This exhibition offers an environment where pleasure and pressure coexist and often interplay.

The artists examine the hidden state of discomfort in everyday life, juxtaposed with the comfort found in the familiar through diverse mediums and conceptual frameworks. This dichotomy is reflected in forms such as the uncanny appearance of Lad’s salvaged wood sculptures and the state of transition in places that depicts both familiarity and alienation in Vincent’s paintings. The works in the exhibition appear both grotesque and playful. Pitsadiotis illustrates sex as giving and receiving in both literal and symbolic ways in their painting, i’ve seen half of god’s face here, composting the merged bodies beneath the layers of the conscious and subconscious mind.

Human waste has become omnipresent in today’s world, even in the deep waters and soils that sustain life. Chudnovsky’s recent work captures this conflict by using both synthetic and organic decay, creating an intersection where the two converge to form patterns. RB’s immersive installation and painting, Nature Not Mother, form a web of life’s fragments, inviting viewers to move beyond a human-centric perspective. With its multiple layers, Zhou’s sculpture, Brother, reflects the traces people left in places, evoking a sense of familiarity.

Anxious yet familiar world invites the viewer to embrace the often overlooked feeling of uneasiness found in everyday moments. The exhibition still aims to maintain the spirit of hope by encouraging visitors to reconsider how they engage with and find beauty in the subtle aspects of their daily lives.

Text by Gizem Candan