Broke Baroque

June 7th-June 22nd

Opening June 7th, 6-9pm

"YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT IS ENOUGH UNTIL YOU KNOW WHAT IS MORE THAN ENOUGH

                                                                                                                                     -William Blake

         The sarcophagi of the pharaoh’s were made of gold, inlaid with gems and placed in elaborate maze-like vaults, reinforcing their status as living gods walking amongst  mortals. St. Peter’s Basilica, with it’s soaring vaulted ceilings, must have seemed beyond earthly creation when compared to the modest dwellings of the parishioners, as if formed by divinity itself.

         But each of these things was made by a craftsperson of some sort, an artist, or artisan- using their hands to create the illusion of divinity. Gold is gold, and as such will carry itself with value, but to pass off glitter as better than gold is the alchemy of craft and humor.

         It is in considering this tradition that we look to artists who use modest means to channel collection into creation. Some frequent the halls of thrift stores and the pages of comic books, latching onto and repurposing the symbols and icons of past generations. Some work frantically, crushing together images from disposable media with trash from the street and a magpies’ collection of tin cans and string. Others methodically match and organize, as if searching for a signal in the noise of the items that populate their lives. Somewhere in here there is an interplay between excess and enlightenment.