VAP 2021-Q4
The ancient Greeks noticed the star Sirius, or the dog star, rising in conjunction with the sun. The energy of the two stars ascending together is said to have contributed to extreme heat, resulting in drought, rapid thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, and bad luck. Not to mention, wanton women and weak men.
Loosely, we refer to this stretch of time as the Dog Days, a period of particularly hot and humid weather in the Northern Hemisphere’s summer months. The ancient Greeks blamed the star’s travels for issues regarding both the meteorological and the interpersonal.
The term itself connotes a sultry type of haze that directly relates to the carnal experience. It becomes a moment where language, external conditions and the body converge.
In Dog Days, varying uses of color and light evoke the idea of heat–whether it is the luminosity in Lesley Wamsley’s All Day Light, or the electric tonal range in Benjamin Campbell’s Astral Cabaret. Additionally, each work in the show points directly back to a sensation, or a notion of tactility. These works serve as each artist’s personal artifact formed during a period of isolation. Inherently intimate, these pieces serve equally as both points of quietude and perseveration.
Dog Days as a whole underlines the yoking between the internal and external, and how the relationship between one’s own physical form and the immediate world around it can have its own intoxicating charge.
About the curator:
Gabriella Moreno is a current MFA candidate at XXX and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of Visual Arts, where she was awarded the Silas H. Rhodes Scholarship. She has exhibited in New York, Glasgow and Rome, and co-founded an independent curatorial project that focuses on challenging conventional narratives in the contemporary market. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her work can be found at www.gabriellamoreno.com or on Instagram @g.abriella.moreno.
Participating Artists: Artists here.