Flatland: Work from KW|AG's Permanent Collection

September 14 - September 7, 2008
Curated by Crystal Mowry and Cindy Wayvon (KW|AG)

Artists: Otto Beyer, Ronald Bloore, Tom Dean, Yves Gaucher, Kazuo Nakamura, Hugh MacKenzie, Ray Mead, Dieter Roth, Armand Vaillancourt

Hugh MacKenzie, Parking Garage, 3/15, 1990.  Aquatint on paper.  Collection of KW|AG, Gift of the artist, 1992.

A writer might describe an event in the language of a child, offering adult readers a glimpse into what seems like another universe. A filmmaker might film the minutia of an activity, articulating it in a way that reveals a rhythm and choreography in what might otherwise seem banal. Art of all types has that wonderful role in our lives; it can show us the familiar while simultaneously making it strange.

Flatland: Work from KW|AG's Permanent Collection borrows its title from the 1884 novella by Edwin Abbott, a curious fiction about a two-dimensional being whose vision of the world changes drastically when he is exposed to a three-dimensional landscape. Like the novella, Flatland: Work from KW|AG's Permanent Collection transforms the familiar world around us into strange and wonderful landscapes by simple shifts in perspective and graphic economy. Each of the works featured in this exhibition rely on graphic gestures rendered in a strict grey-scale palette - a selection of efficient and elegant images that allow us to see our world in a series of lines and shapes. This exhibit also premieres a number of works that have never been exhibited in the gallery since their acquisition.