Elevate The Object

In our modern age, we are encouraged to trade the tangible for the digital and the physical for the fleeting. Indeed, all human-made objects have a temporary existence, but art stands out as one of the few areas where the emotional experience of being in the presence of a great work is not easily replicated. Elevate The Object is an exaltation of the visceral impact of art. The exhibition brings together a diverse group of artists from around the world, working in painting, mixed-media, and sculpture. However, the exhibition eschews a focus on cultural identity in favor of a deeper examination of each artist’s creative output.

Growing up amid diverse cultures and languages, Egami Etsu explores the complexities of communication, from its essence to its processes, in what she describes as the “game of misunderstandings.” Julie Champion, a curator at the Centre Pompidou, notes the unique beauty in Etsu’s work, emphasizing how she perceives these specificities not merely as sources of misunderstanding but as wellsprings of creativity and richness in interpersonal relationships. Etsu’s art oscillates between abstraction and figuration, creating landscape portraits through a blend of horizontal, vertical, and sinuous lines. To her, a portrait is more than an object; it embodies the sound, voice, and face of individuals. Etsu describes her creative process as seeing with her ears and hearing with her eyes, artfully navigating between sound and light as modes of communication. Through this interplay, Egami Etsu captures moments of ephemeral and pristine beauty in her paintings.

Dan Flanagan is an artist known for his flamboyant abstract creations and vibrant, graffiti-inspired figurative sketches, employing acrylic and spray paint. His art, drawing inspiration from the Abstract Expressionists, maintains a distinctly contemporary edge. Flanagan explores the varied properties of acrylic, oil, and spray paint through an intuitive process, only stepping back when a piece is nearly finished. His lively figurative paintings, showcasing hands, arms, and faces, echo the enduring influence of the graffiti that fascinated him during his youth. The dynamism of New York City serves as his ultimate source of inspiration throughout his work.

vanessa german is a self-taught citizen artist working across sculpture, performance, communal rituals, immersive installation, and photography, in order to repair and reshape disrupted systems, spaces, and connections. The artist’s practice proposes new models for social healing, utilizing creativity and tenderness as vital forces to reckon with the historical and ongoing catastrophes of structural racism, white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, resource extraction, and misogynoir. A visual storyteller, german utilizes assemblage and mixed media, combining locally found objects to build protective ritualistic structures known as her power figures.

Initially a conceptual artist, Jeremy Lawson has shifted his focus to abstract painting since earning his MFA in 2021. Inspired by the bold and luminous colors observed in the later exhibitions of Howard Hodgkin, Pablo Picasso, and Claude Monet, Lawson’s methodical approach results in compositions that are visually striking both from afar and at close range. He applies oil paint using only his hands and paper palettes, creating depth and texture that add complexity to his works. Regardless of their size, from small to monumental, Lawson has developed a dynamic aesthetic that is instantly recognizable.

Odili Donald Odita brings heightened awareness to color and space in paintings where abstraction is an optically, physically, and culturally-felt phenomenon. Though they are rooted in a broad range of historical lineages—Africanist approaches to pattern; modernist painting and design; and contemporary conceptual positions, to name a few—his compositions make immediate appeals to the senses in the here and now. Odita’s take on non-objective art is suffused with connectivity to the world around him, and arises from memories, philosophical reflections, and meditations on the ways in which political forces shape relationships between perception and form. His primary stance is one of constant engagement, as evidenced by Odita’s interest in creating both discrete works and large-scale, site-specific installations.

Grace Woodcock is a London-based artist whose work blends biological and science fiction influences, exploring the concept of possessing an intelligent, sensing body. Her sculptures aim to physically engage viewers, reflecting familiar feelings or memories of sensations. Grace combines experimental upholstery techniques with Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software to create installations, soft sculptures, wearable art, and furniture. Woodcock has stated, “With all my work I’m trying to give the viewer’s body something to map onto, to reflect back a feeling it knows, a memory of a sensation. Something of a framework for that which I am always coming back to is the neurological condition of mirror-touch synaesthesia. It’s this rare synaesthesia where a sensation of physical touch is felt in response to what is seen, most commonly when observing physical touch to another person.”

About the curator:

Dexter Wimberly is an American curator based in Japan who has organized exhibitions in galleries and institutions around the world, including the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, The Green Family Art Foundation in Dallas, The Harvey B. Gantt Center in Charlotte, KOKI Arts in Tokyo, BODE in Berlin, Standing Pine in Tokyo, and The Third Line in Dubai, among others. Wimberly’s exhibitions have been reviewed and featured in publications including The New York Times and Artforum; and have received support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and The Kinkade Family Foundation. Wimberly is a Senior Critic at New York Academy of Art, and the founder and director of the Hayama Artist Residency in Japan. He is also the co-founder and CEO of the online education platform, CreativeStudy.