RADIUS EXHIBITION

SHAPESHIFTERS

June 7 - August 25, 2024

OPENING EVENT: June 7, 2024 | 5 - 9 PM

Throughout history, artists have been agents of change, bearing witness to, interpreting, and revealing the human impact of our state of being, expressed through a metamorphosis of materials and evolving forms.  Whether political, physical, scientific, psychological, aesthetic, or intellectual, the artist as a shapeshifter initiates dialogue, placing them at the forefront of invention, transformation, and change. The result of this is reflected in bodies of work, but also in the artist. This exhibition brings together the work of Andrea Finch, Susan Isaacs, Wayson R. Jones, Hillary Steel and Robert Straight who collectively demonstrate shifting forms that, among other qualities, symbolically consider the capriciousness of personal identity with a literal investigation into transmogrifying materials. 

These works subvert traditional structures, moving freely in the vernacular of materials, challenging those very resources to transmute into something entirely new and unexpected. Indeed, the notion of transformation, and nearly every other word with the prefix trans­-, lies at the epicenter of shapeshifting’s appeal to modern audiences interested in fresh ideas and connections. The artists in this exhibition ask us to consider art as an experience, and the art object as an instrument through which to enter. Each artist provides a unique entrance into their work and through a keen sense of materiality and method, the works reveal successful experimentation and in doing so, a vulnerability in themselves as artists. 

As such, our contemporary understanding of shapeshifting is not grounded in the literal process of turning into an animal or monster as mythology, folklore, Classic literature, or Epic poems might suggest. Rather, we can think of shapeshifting as the ability to become ANYTHING, proving we only need imagination to alter aspects of our world. Artists frequently employ these notions of shapeshifting to challenge, obstruct, and create transcendental thoughts. They are the mirrors and the manipulators that allow a shift in our thinking and provide avenues of discovery, encouraging our own imagination.

DuPont I Gallery

Participating Artists:  Andrea Finch, Susan Isaacs, Wayson R. Jones, Hillary Steel, Robert Straight

Curated by Chase Dougherty and Amy Eva Raehse