December 3, 2004 – January 30, 2005
Discontent
“What moves men of genius,
or rather what inspires their work,
is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea
that what has already been said is not enough.”
-Eugene Delacroix
The thought of discontent at first may seem like a negative connotation. Being unhappy, forlorn, dejected and depressed may not seem like the most productive relationship to have with the rest of the world. For artists, however, discontent is seen as a catalyst for inspiration. Many create work to be a statement of protest against social or political ideas. For others, personal discontent drives them to make their creative endeavors more beautiful, powerful, challenging or more thought provoking as previously realized.
Within the state of politics, the economy and the world there is a lot to be discontent with. History sees discontent as an impetus for change. Revolutions, protest and social movements have all grown from a desire to challenge or change the status quo.
Nexus, Philadelphia’s oldest and longest running artist collective was born out of discontent with the commercial gallery system of the time. In 1975, Nexus’ founders decided to build a collaboration of artists and would challenge the status quo in the art scene. Today, Nexus still exists as an alternative to the norm and supports artists as they find creative inspiration from the discontent that drives them.
Utilizing installation, video, performance, sculpture, photography, printmaking, painting and multi-media the artist membership will explore this concept. The curators have also decided to follow suit with the exploration of discontent by requesting from the artists they provide an entirely different piece of work to be displayed in the second month.
Discontent included work by the entire artist membership of NEXUS.
Susan Abrams, Virginia Batson, Matt Brownell, Anne Cecil, Maureen Ciaccio, Nic Coviello, Rebecca Gilbert, Jennifer Butler-Kaler, Alicia Keller, Yukie Kobayashi, Chris Macan, Tom McCloskey, Elizabeth New, Catherine Passante, Mathew Pruden, Carole Sivin, Libbie Soffer, Patti Streeter, Jody Sweitzer, Chris Vecchio, Jim Wasserman and Dina Wind