Recently I’m worried about the safety and the direction of our country.
I am witnessing the rapid dismantling of the infrastructure of art, culture and democracy.
Funding is being cut from arts programs, due to “misalignment of interests.”
Institutions are rewriting their mission statements or closing.
Books are being removed from classroom shelves.
Tariffs are increasing the costs of art materials.
Voices are silenced.
I believe actions by “the state” not only acknowledge the power of the arts, they are actively inculcating doctrine through the oxymoronic duo of virtual-reality and artificial intelligence.
Can art help relieve this anxiety, comfort the disturbance
while also disturbing the complacent?
I wonder, is there an aesthetic of resistance. How does resistance interface with anxiety, with critical thinking, integrity and individual expression.
Or, rather, every work of art is an act of resistance.
What IS the role of the artist and the gallerist? The artist captures and records the temperature of the times; the gallerist fosters community and dialogue. With art we have a voice.
Inhale courage, exhale art.
