Catalog Essay:

On display is a selection of recent work by faculty teaching at Florida International University (FIU). Each work explores an abstract idea or physical material in flux or between two states. Simply put, every work in the exhibition embodies a moment of change, or TRANSFORMATION, the conceptual strand which holds together the exhibition’s four smaller, curated groupings.

"Alchemical & Atmospheric" includes ethereal watercolors, sculptures composed of an admixture of seawater, debris, and muck from the Florida coastline, and metalwork that is neither solid nor liquid. The section titled "Sublime De-Composition" includes drawings, paintings, and photographs that tackle subject matter ranging from contemporary re-stagings of civil war battles and burial practices in the Yucatán to local and even otherworldly flora and fauna. The "Un-Homely" grouping is comprised of everything from video and photographs (some with text) to a painting and mixed-media work; these works explore the implicit creepiness of the idyllic domestic sphere as well as the desire to fuse seemingly disparate cultures.

Finally, the paintings, ceramics, artist book, and photo-collage grouped under the rubric "Unstable Signifiers" upend conventional notions of the still life or ceramic figurine traditions to make biting social and political commentaries as well as challenge the integrity of words or commercial product labels as stable signs.

–Alpesh Kantilal Patel

Catalog: