Ex Nihilo

       

          

          An art exhibition often is titled with some clever or interesting name which succinctly embodies the qualities and concepts being presented in the context of the exhibition. Title and concept are synonymous in many cases as the work of the artists and those who organize the event will focus on this title as a clear center from which they will derive the direction of their collective efforts. In the case of “ex nihilo” we have both a title and concept which would seem to apply itself to a romantic view that the artist by nature embodies an attribute more commonly reserved to God: that the artist creates his work ex nihilo, “from nothing”. As appealing as this idea may sound, it is completely false. No artist ever creates his work from nothing. His ideas or “inspirations” may “come” to him in what may appear to be “ex nihilo”, but they never are. The world the artist lives in, his experiences and the way these elements interact in his brain are the source of his “inspiration”, while the concrete application of these ideas is achieved through the filters of his natural predisposition to be an artist, his technical training, and his understanding of what art should be. All of these variables put into practice will produce an effect approaching the illusion of a conjuring trick, to make something appear from thin air. The idea of creation from nothing is romantic in its charm, but in this exhibition we do not need this.

         In the case of our presentation of "ex nihilo", we demonstrate an alternative meaning for this phrase. We enter the dialectic of art with an exhibition whose topics and presentation are at odds with what has most recently been presented in the same location and general frame of time, this has been done ex nihilo. When we also compare the work of the four artists in this exhibition to each other, and again as we proceed from one work to another, the entire context will change, ex nihilo. This exhibition is an alternative discourse, composed of divergent voices, presented ex nihilo.