The voice of modern painters across the world brought to Norfolk.
Contact, Ali Banisadr
Photo by Tom Loonan
Revolution 2.0 – RFGA, Ghada Amer
Photo courtesy of Cheim & Read
Untitled (Flood), Barnaby Furnas
Photo by Tom Loonan
When you first step into the new fall exhibition, Chaos and Awe: Painting for the 21st Century, at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, you might find yourself feeling overwhelmed, fearful, awestruck or excited toward the variety of paintings around you.
These are not your average landscape and floral patterns; these new works are diverse and complex, created by 36 different artists and brought together by Mark Scala, chief curator of the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.
“This exhibition is the third in a series he’s been thinking about in terms of humans and society,” says Kimberli Gant, McKinnon Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Chrysler Museum, who assisted in bringing the exhibition to Norfolk. “Paintings are still really important to contemporary art,” she adds.
The exhibition is organized into seven sections—No Place, Shadows, Collisions, Interzone, Virtuality, Boundless and Everything—all of which reflect on issues and circumstances unique to the 21st century.
“The works are organized holistically; each work shows a particular perspective, and together there is a reaction,” says Gant. “And depending on the circumstances, the reaction can be beneficial or detrimental.”
Although there are many interpretations of the themes and messages from this exhibition, one thing is for sure: This series will leave you asking questions you may never have thought of before. “The Everything section asks us as humans to think about the world. What does it mean to engage beyond our humanity,” says Gant. “Can we connect on a small level beyond our existence? It’s just a very philosophical and beautiful question.”
Chaos and Awe is open through April 28, 2019. Chrysler.org
